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REPORT  ON  THE 

NEW  MEXICO 

STATE  EDUCATIONAL 

INSTITUTIONS 

TO  THE 

NEW  MEXICO  SPECIAL  REVENUE 
COMMISSION 

BY 

WILLIAM  C.  BAGLEY,  Ph.  D. 

Professor  of  Education,  Teachers'  College 

Columbia  University 


FEBRUARY,  1921 


REPORT  ON  THE 

NEW  MEXICO  STATE 
EDUCATIONAL  INTSITUTIONS 

AND  THE 

GENERAL  EDUCATION  SYSTEM 
OF  NEW  MEXICO 

BY  W.  G.  BAGLEY,  Ph.  D. 

of  the  Teachers'  College 
Columbia  University 

With  Letters  From 

PROFESSOR  E.  P.  CUBBERLY  and 
PROFESSOR  GEO.  D.  STRAYER 

TO  THE 

NEW  MEXICO  SPECIAL  REVENUE 
COMMISSION 


SANTA  FE,  FEBRUARY,  1921 


Printed  by 

The  Santa  Fe  New  Mexican  Publishing  Corporation 
Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Page 

Foreword 5 

Introduction  9 

School  Population 10 

Teaching  Population  11 

State  Higher  Institutions 21 

Normal  Schools  : 21 

University  29 

School  of  Mines 32 

College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanical  Arts 33 

Military  Institute  37 

Reorganization  Possibilities  37 

One  Institution  ....45 

Two  Institutions 48 

Three  Institutions  49 

Letter  of  Dr.  Cubberley 55 

Letter  of  Dr.  Strayer 59 

Appendix  ...  60 


FOREWORD. 

The  Revenue  Commission  in  concluding  its  work  presents 
herewith  a  report  of  Professor  William  C.  Bagley  on  the  edu- 
cational situation  in  New  Mexico,  and  its  state  educational  in- 
stitutions. 

Every  legislature  is  confronted  with  the  problem  of  pro- 
viding for  the  constantly  increasing  needs  of  these  institu- 
tions. This  problem  as  now  presented  to  the  legislature  may 
be  said  to  be  critical,  but  the  demands  of  the  institutions,  as 
shown  by  the  budget,  and  the  difficulty  of  meeting  these  de- 
mands were  never  so  great  as  at  the  present  time. 

It  is  very  difficult  under  prevailing  conditions  for  anyone 
in  the  state  to  fairly  judge  questions  of  institutional  reorgani- 
zation. Members  of  the  legislature  from  Silver  City,  Las  Cru- 
ces,  El  Rito,  Socorro,  Albuquerque,  and  Roswell  are  elected 
with  the  express  or  implied  mandate  of  their  constituents  that 
one  of  their  first  duties  is  to  see  to  it  that  they  get  their  share 
of  appropriations  for  the  institutions  located  in  their  respective 
districts.  For  the  institutions  located  in  these  seven  towns 
there  was  appropriated  for  the  last  biennium  the  sum  of  $755,- 
825.45,  and  for  the  same  institutions  the  requests  for  appro- 
priations for  the  next  biennium  amount  to  $2,327,022.82.  It 
is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question  that  all  of  these  requests 
should,  even  under  favorable  conditions,  be  granted.  But  it  is 
true  that  most  of  these  estimates  submitted  by  the  sponsors 
of  the  various  institutions  are  not  unreasonable  if  the  institu- 
tions as  now  organized  and  located  are  to  be  properly  provided 
for.  To  properly  provide  for  them  is,  of  course,  quite  imposs- 
ible. With  our  other  governmental  burdens  there  is  not 
enough  taxable  wealth  in  the  state  to  do  so.  That  this  is  a 
fact  has  already  been  clearly  demonstrated. 

Whether  or  not  a  reorganization  of  these  schools  can  be 
effected  which  will  insure  a  better  return  to  the  taxpayers, 
upon  the  investment  they  are  making  in  their  maintenance,  is 
a  question  which  has  been  perfunctorily  discussed  for  many 
years.  It  has  never  been  definitely  and  clearly  investigated. 
No  such  investigation  has  ever  before  been  seriously  initiated. 
But  there  is  a  clear  and  incisive  demand  that  the  matter  be 
vigorously  and  honestly  examined  into,  so  that  the  people  and 
their  representatives  may  know  where  and  how  we  stand. 

We  are  faced  with  the  alternative  of  continuing  these  in- 
stitutions in  their  present  status  which,  as  regards  the  most  of 
them,  is  quite  unsatisfactory,  or  of  finding  some  way  of  chang- 


6  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

ing  the  status  so  that  with  the  resources  available  they  may  be 
made  to  show  an  adequate  return  011  the  investment. 

It  was  in  a  sincere  endeavor  to  meet  this  demand,  and  to 
define  the  issue  that  the  Revenue  Commission  secured  the  serv- 
ices of  Dr.  Bagley  for  the  investigation  which  has  resulted  in 
the  present  report.  There  is  no  one  in  the  country  better  quali- 
fied than  he  to  pass  upon  the  question,  and  nothing  that  I 
could  say  would  add  anything  to  the  force  of  his  statements. 
Professor  Bagley  has  made  it  clear  in  the  beginning  of  his  re- 
port that  his  work  here  should  not  be  looked  upon  in  any  sense 
as  a  "survey,"  which  would  require  a  much  longer  time  than 
that  for  which  we  were  able  to  secure  his  assistance.  His  work 
may,  perhaps,  properly  be  called  a  diagnosis,  after  consultation 
with  other  eminently  qualified  judges,  of  our  present  troubles. 
He  suggests  three  alternative  plans  for  a  remedy.  That  he  has 
made  a  very  careful  study  of  our  situation  as  a  whole  is 
clearly  apparent  from  the  report  itself,  and  the  fact  that  he 
spent  but  a  short  time  on  the  ground  will  not  militate  against 
the  soundness  of  his  conclusions. 

What  is  particularly  significant  about  the  report  is  that  it 
treats  the  question  of  our  higher  educational  institutions  from 
the  standpoint  of  their  maximum  usefulness  as  integral  parts 
of  the  general  educational  system  of  the  state.  That  the  state's 
taxpaying  ability  insofar  as  it  is  available  for  educational  pur- 
poses should  be  used  first  and  foremost  for  the  best  possible 
primary  education  of  our  children  in  rural,  graded,  and  high 
schools  seems  clear.  Viewed  from  this  standpoint, — and  it  is  a 
sensible  and  conservative  standpoint, — the  questions  as  to  pos- 
sible reorganization  or  centralization  of  our  present  institu- 
tions become  at  once  less  complex  and  confusing.  We  have  a 
definite  goal  to  aim  at — one  that  can  be  reached  with  the 
strength  and  resources  at  our  disposal. 

Professor  Bagley  frankly  states  his  firm  conviction  that 
the  most  fundamental  of  all  educational  problems,  in  any  state, 
is  the  provision  of  competent  teachers  for  the  lower  schools, 
and  admits  that  his  judgment  in  this  respect  may  be  questioned. 

The  more  one  studies  the  problem  in  this  state,  the  more 
one  must  be  convinced  that  so  far  as  we  are  concerned  the 
sooner  we  come  to  the  same  conclusion,  and  bend  our  energies 
toward  solving  the  problem,  primarily  from  that  angle,  the  bet- 
ter it  will  be.  This  does  not  mean — nor  does  Prof.  Bagley  so 
intimate — that  we  should  not  constantly  bear  in  mind  the  ac- 
companying development  of  academic  and  professional  schools 
in  connection  with  a  university.  On  the  contrary  he  points  out 
very  clearly  how  this  may  be  most  effectively  accomplished 
with  the  resources  at  our  disposal.  Only,  he  says — and  this,  I 
am  sure,  is  true — the  training  of  teachers  for  our  lower  grades 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  7 

should  be  the  central  motive  in  plans  for  the  reorganizing  of 
our  state  educational  institutions. 

There  has  been  introduced  in  the  legislature  by  Senators 
Hedgecock  and  Brickley,  a  Republican  and  a  Democrat,  the  fol- 
lowing joint  resolution : 

"Be  it  resolved  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
New  Mexico  that  Section  13  of  Article  XII  of  the 
Constitution  be  amended  to  read  as  follows : 

"The  Legislature  may  provide  for  the  merger, 
consolidation,  change  of  location,  management  and 
control  of  State  Institutions  and  State  Educational 
Institutions. ' ' 

Sections  11  and  12  of  the  same  Article  confirm  as  state 
educational  institutions  the  nine  institutions  as  they  are  now 
established.  Section  13,  as  now  drawn,  provides  for  the  con- 
trol and  management  of  these  institutions  by  a  board  of  reg- 
ents for  each  institution. 

The  proposed  amendment  is  absolutely  essential  as  a  pre- 
liminary step  toward  the  consideration  of  any  change  from  the 
present  status  of  these  institutions,  either  along  the  lines  sug- 
gested by  Professor  Bagley,  or  along  any  other  lines.  Neither 
the  passage  of  this  joint  resolution  proposing  the  amendment, 
nor  the  passage  of  the  amendment  would  bind  the  legislature 
to  any  particular  course  in  connection  with  any  re-organization 
of  our  institutions.  What  it  would  do  would  be  to  give  to  a 
future  legislature  the  power  to  effect  such  changes  in  the  ad- 
ministrative program  of  our  state  educational  institutions  as 
they  may  decide  are  necessary. 

It  is  both  a  condition  and  a  theory  that  confront  us. 

The  condition  is  that  we  have  a  system  of  state  educational 
institutions  which  cannot  be  properly  provided  for  in  their 
present  status. 

^  The  theory  is  that  they  must  not  only  all  be  maintained  in 
their  present  status,  but  by  means  of  greatly  increased  appro- 
priations be  given  the  power  to  become  actually  efficient  for 
the  purposes  for  which  they  were  founded. 

If  power  be  given  the  legislature,  through  a  constitutional 
amendment  to  reorganize  these  institutions,  or  some  of  them, 
an  effective  reorganization  can  be  brought  about  if  there  ac- 
tually be  a  determination  to  bring  it  abo'ut.  It  can  never  be 
brought  about  unless  the  controlling  motive  in  considering  the 
question  be  to  actually  co-ordinate  the  state's  system  of  higher 
education  on  state-wide  lines.  If  it  be  determined  that  such  a 
change  is  not  desirable,  and  that  the  present  situation  is  to  be 
indefinitely  maintained — then  none  of  the  institutions  as  at 


8  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

present  established  should  be  penalized  because  they  have  been 
efficiently  and  successfully  administered. 

In  addition  to  the  letter  of  Professor  Bagley,  is  published, 
a  letter  from  Professor  E.  P.  Cubberly,  who  is  Professor  of  Ed- 
ucation at  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University,  and  another 
from  Professor  G.  D.  Strayer  of  Columbia  University,  both  con- 
firming in  practically  every  respect  Professor  Bagley 's  views. 

Both  of  these  gentlemen  are  well  known  as  authorities  on 
subjects  of  Educational  Organization.  In  addition  to  many 
works  on  these  subjects,  Professor  Cubberly  recently  drafted 
a  Report  of  the  Special  Legislative  Committee  on  Education 
of  the  State  Legislature  of  California  which  is  a  masterly  pre- 
sentation of  the  subject. 

H.  J.  HAGERMAN, 

Chairman  of  the  New  Mexico  Special  Revenue  Commission. 
Santa  Fe,  February  15,  1921. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  9 

REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO  EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTIONS. 

December  18,  ]920. 

The  New  Mexico  Special  Revenue  Commission, 
Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico. 

Gentlemen: 

On  the  invitation  of  Mr.  H.  J.  Hagerman,  Chairman  of  the 
Special  Revenue  Commission,  I  spent  the  period  between  Octo- 
ber seventh  and  October  fifteenth,  inclusive,  in  a  study  of  the 
higher  state  educational  institutions  of  New  Mexico.  I  visited 
the  following  schools:  the  State  Normal  University;  the  Uni- 
versity of  New  Mexico;  the  State  School  of  Mines;  the  State 
Agricultural  College;  and  the  State  Normal  School  at  Silver 
City.  I  also  visited  Santa  Fe  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  with 
the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction.  My  trip 
through  New  Mexico  was  personally  conducted  by  Mr.  R.  F. 
Asplund,  Secretary  of  the  Special  Revenue  Commission,  who 
showed  me  every  possible  courtesy  and  whose  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  state  and  of  its  educational  problems  was  of  very 
great  value  in  orienting  me  in  the  work  that  I  was  asked  to  do. 

I  interpreted  my  mission  in  New  Mexico  to  be  that  of  ex- 
amining the  higher  institutions  with  especial  reference  to  the 
service  that  they  are  rendering  to  the  State  as  a  return  upon 
the  investment  that  the  taxpayers  are  making  in  their  main- 
tenance. My  work  should  not  be  looked  upon  as  in  any  sense 
a  "survey"  of  these  institutions  as  this  term  is  now  used  in 
educational  discussions.  An  adequate  survey  would  require  at 
least  two  or  three  months'  study  of  the  situation  on  the  ground, 
and  perhaps  as  long  a  time  in  the  preparation  of  a  report.  I 
spent  in  the  State  only  eight  days  in  all,  and  my  study  of  the 
several  institutions  was  necessarily  limited  to  the  collection  of 
information  that  could  be  gathered  quickly.  I  have  had  at  hand 
in  the  preparation  of  my  report,  of  course,  additional  data  fur- 
nished by  the  schools'  publications  and  by  correspondence. 
What  I  have  to  say  is  confined  chiefly  to  the  " reactions"  of  an 
outsider  who  is  somewhat  familiar  with  the  general  problem 
of  higher  and  professional  education  and  who  is  interpreting 
the  specific  facts  presented  by  New  Mexico's  higher  institu- 
tions in  the  light  of  this  general  information. 

In  the  report,  I  shall  first  summarize  my  impressions  of 
the  general  educational  situation  in  New  Mexico,  for  it  is  clear 
that  the  special  problems  of  the  State's  high  or  institutions 
cannot  safely  be  separated  from  the  larger  problem  which  in- 
volves the  entire  educational  system  of  the  commonwealth. 


10  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

1.     THE  SCHOOL  POPULATION. 

New  Mexico,  with  a  total  population  of  360,000  (1920  cen- 
sus) had,  in  1917,  a  school  population  (all  persons  between  the 
ages  of  five  and  twenty-one  years)  of  106,310  (U.  S.  Com.  Re- 
port 1917-18).  The  average  daily  attendance  in  public  schools 
was  62.9%  of  the  enrollment.  The  public  high  schools,  in  1920, 
graduated  from  their  four-year  courses  452  pupils. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  number  of  New  Mexico  children 
prepared  for  higher  instruction  each  year  is  relatively  small. 
Proportionately  to  the  total  population,  New  Mexico  may  be 
compared  with  the  following  states : 

Population     H.  S.  Graduates      Proportion 

(1920)  (1916)  1000  Pop. 

New  Mexico  360,247  334  0.90 

Arizona 333,273  330  0.99 

Colorado   .? 939,376  2387  2.5 

Idaho  431,826        .  1072  2.4 

Montana   _ 547,593  851  1.5 

Utah  449,446  804  1.8 

Nevada 81,875  121  1.4 

Wyoming 194,402  327  1.7 

(Note :  1916  is  the  latest  year  for  which  data  from  all  of 
these  states  are  available.) 

The  high  schools  of  the  state  seem  to  be  relatively  less  well 
developed  than  in  the  other  Mountain  states.  The  rank  of  New 
Mexico  among  all  of  the  states  in  proportion  of  high  school  en- 
rollment to  total  school  enrollment  is  very  low — fourth  from 
the  bottom  of  the  list.  The  graduates  from  New  Mexico  high 
schools  under  present  conditions,  indeed,  would  be  very  thinly 
spread  among  the  State's  collegiate  institutions,  even  if  all  of 
these  graduates  went  on  to  higher  education  and  attended  the 
degree-granting  colleges  of  their  own  state. 

If  this  situation  were  to  be  lon^  continued — if  the  general 
population  should  be  thought  of  as  growing  slowly  and  the 
'  proportion  of  high  school  graduates  to  the  total  population  as 
remaining  relatively  stationary — its  bearing  upon  the  question 
of  the  consolidation  of  the  higher  institutions  would  be  obvious. 
There  will  be  a  limit,  of  course,  to  the  state's  population.  It  is 
possible  that  New  Mexico  will  at  some  time  in  the  future  sup- 
port a  population  three  or  four  times  as  large  as  the  number 
of  people  now  residing  within  its  borders.  But  even  accepting 
this  as  a  reasonable  prediction,  the  increase  is  likely  to  be  slow. 

Passing  to  the  question,  Will  the  proportion  of  high  school 
graduates  to  the  general  population  remain  stationary?  a  clear- 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  11 

ly  negative  answer  is  justified.  The  tendency  throughout  the 
country  for  thirty  years  has  been  very  decidedly  toward  larger 
high  school  enrollments  and  proportionate  increases  in  the 
number  of  high  school  graduates.  I  was  informed  by  State 
Superintendent  J.  H.  Wagner  that  the  number  of  pupils  com- 
pleting the  eighth  grade  of  the  elementary  schools  of  New 
Mexico  had  practically  doubled  within  two  years.  The  number 
for  1920  was  2202.  With  increased  high  school  facilities,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  expect  that  New  Mexico  within  a  few  years 
will  graduate  from  800  to  1000  pupils  annually  from  its  high 
schools,  and  the  number  may  rise  within  three  decades  to  1200 
or  1500  even  without  large  increases  in  the  total  population. 
On  this  basis,  entering  classes  of  700  or  800  for  the  state 's  high- 
er institutions  could  be  reasonably  predicted. 

These  estimates  leave  out  of  account  students  coming  from 
other  states.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  these  will  be  partially 
balanced  by  New  Mexico  students  going  elsewhere.  In  any 
case,  it  would  be  unwise  to  judge  of  the  demand  for  higher  edu- 
cation in  New  Mexico  during  the  next  three  decades  either  by 
the  very  small  enrollment  of  the  collegiate  institutions  today 
or  by  the  relatively  low  proportion  of  high  school  graduates  to 
the  general  population.  The  forces  that  have  worked  for  larger 
high  school  enrollments  in  Arizona,  Wyoming  and  Utah  will 
come  soon  to  work  for  larger  enrollments  in  New  Mexico.  In- 
deed, the  recent  remarkable  increases  in  the  number  of  ele- 
mentary school  graduates  is  q'uite  conclusive  evidence  that  a 
gratifying  era  of  educational  development  for  New  Mexico  lies 
within  the  immediate  future. 

The  high  school  situation  also  involves  another  problem 
in  connection  with  the  higher  institutions — namely,  the  justifi- 
cation of  preparatory  or  secondary  departments  in  connection 
with  the  colleges.  I  shall  refer  to  this  in  some  detail  later. 
Here  it  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  New  Mexico  is  still  very 
weak  in  its  provision  of  high  school  facilities.  Those  interested 
in  higher  education  in  New  Mexico  might  well  make  it  one  of 
their  first  aims  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  people  of  the  state 
toward  plans  and  policies  for  the  encouragement  of  high 
schools.  States  that  are  similarly  situated  have  met  this  prob- 
lem, and  in  one  way  or  another,  have  taken  steps  toward  its 
solution.  The  rural  high  schools  of  Idaho  and  the  county  high 
schools  of  Montana  and  Colorado  are  cases  in  point. 

II.  THE  TEACHING  POPULATION. 

Quite  the  first  business  of  the  state's  higher  institutions  is 
the  preparation  of  competent  teachers  for  the  public  schools. 
To  gain  even  a  superficial  understanding  of  the  problems  of 


12  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

higher  education  in  a  state,  then,  one  must  know  something 
of  the  personnel  of  the  public  school  service,  especially  the 
salient  facts  regarding  preparation,  tenure,  and  annual  "turn- 
over. ' '  This  is  important  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  teacher 
training  function  of  the  colleges  and  the  normal  schools ;  it  is 
equally  important  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  general  effi- 
ciency of  the  higher  institutions — for  such  efficiency  depends 
in  part  upon  the  thoroughness  with  which  the  lower  schools  do 
their  work. 

The  teaching  population    (elementary  and   high  schools) 
was  reported  to  me  by  State  Superintendent  Wagner  as  2,760 
for  the  school  year  1920-21.    The  distribution*  among  schools  is 
as  follows : 
One  and  two  room  schools  : 

(Rural  schools  and  some  village  schools) 843 

Other  village,  town  and  city  elementary  schools 1,643 

High  Schools 274 


2,760 

These  teachers  are  licensed  under  various  forms  of  certifi- 
cates, the  distribution!  of  which  is  as  follows : 

Teachers  holding  first  grade  certificates  or  better 1,899 

Teachers  holding  second  grade  certificates 462 

Teachers  holding  third  grade  certificates 216 


2?577 

The  large  proportion  of  teachers  holding  the  higher  grades 
of  certificates  is  especially  significant.  The  counties  vary  wide- 
ly in  this  respect.  In  Eddy  and  Chaves  counties,  all  teachers 
hold  first-grade  certificates  or  better — a  remarkable  showing, 
especially  in  view  of  the  shortage  of  trained  teachers  that  has 
prevailed  throughout  the  country  since  1917.  Grant,  Hidalgo, 
Luna,  McKinley,  San  Juan,  De  Baca,  Curry  and  Otero  also 
make  excellent  records.  The  low-grade  certificates  are  found 
in  largest  numbers  in  San  Miguel,  Guadalupe,  Mora  and  Union ; 
while  Torrance,  Socorro  and  Valencia  occupy  a  middle  ground. 

These  facts  have  a  close  bearing  upon  the  teacher-training 

*  This  distribution  is  only  approximate  and  is  based  upon  the 
teaching  positions  listed  in  the  New  Mexico  Educational  Directory  for 
1919-20. 

t  The  distribution  is  based  on  data  furnished  by  Mr.  R.  F.  Asplund. 
The  discrepancy  between  the  totals  in  this  and  the  preceding  table  is 
doubtless  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  a  number  of  teachers  hold 
special  licenses  while  others  are  teaching  on  provisional  "permits." 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  13 

problem.  Certainly  the  time  should  not  be  far  in  the  future 
when  the  state  of  New  Mexico  can  dispense  entirely  with  the 
services  of  low-grade,  untrained  teachers.  Two-thirds  of  all 
teachers  now  hold  first-grade  certificates  or  better,  and  one- 
half  of  those  holding  first-grade  certificates  have  been  granted 
these  credentials  on  the  basis  of  work  done  in  normal  schools 
and  colleges ; — in  other  words,  more  than  one-third  of  the  teach- 
ers now  employed  have  had  some  measure  of  advanced  insti- 
tutional training  in  preparation  for  their  work.  The  State 
Superintendent,  in  response  to  one  of  my  questions,  gave  it  as 
his  opinion  that  the  state  is  now  in  a  position  to  demand  insti- 
tutional training  of  all  teachers.  This  would  bring  New  Mexi- 
co into  line  with  the  most  progressive  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
and  Pacific  Coast  states. 

If  the  training  of  all  teachers  is  to  be  placed  on  an  insti- 
tutional basis,  the  question  arises,  What  level  of  educational  at- 
tainment should  that  basis  represent  ?  Let  me  refer  again  to  the 
fact  that  more  than  one-half  of  the  first-grade  certificates  are 
now  granted  on  the  basis  of  credits  earned  in  normal  schools 
and  colleges.  Let  me  also  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  scale  of 
salaries  for  all  teachers  in  New  Mexico  has  been  measurably 
advanced  within  the  past  three  years,  and  that,  with  the  return 
of  living  costs  to  a  normal  level,  the  State  will  be  justified  in 
raising  very  significantly  the  standards  of  admission  to  the 
public 'school  service.  Finally  let  me  refer  to  the  fact  that  a 
substantial  increase  in  state-wide  standards  at  the  present  time 
would  be  seriously  felt  only  in  a  half-dozen  counties  in  the 
northeastern  section  of  the  State — for  in  practically  all  of  the 
remaining  counties  the  great  majority  of  the  teachers  already 
represent  a  fairly  high  level  of  education  and  training. 

Under  these  conditions,  I  should  urge  the  serious  consid- 
eration of  the  following  policy: 

1.  The  abandonment  of  the  present  third-grade  certificate 
within  two  years;  the  granting  or  reneAval  of  third-grade  cer- 
tificates for  the  year  1921-22  to  be  conditioned  on  six  weeks'  at- 
tendance at  one  of  the  two  normal  schools  in  the  summer  of 
1921. 

2.  The  provision  of  a  temporary  certificate  good  for  one 
year  only  and  granted  on  the  basis  of  a  minimum  of  one  year's 
high  school  work  plus  a  minimum  of  six  weeks'  professional 
training  in  a  normal  school.     This  minimum  standard  should 
be  held  to  for  only  one  year.    The  term  of  all  such  certificates 
should  expire  automatically  in  June,  1923. 

3.  Beginning  with  the  school  year,  1923-24,  the  require- 
ment of  a  two-year  high  school  education  plus  three  months' 
professional  training  in  a  higher  professional  institution.     By 
operating  the  normal  schools  for  a  three  months'  summer  term 


14  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

in  1922  and  1923  it  would  be  possible  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
teachers  who  had  the  two-year  high  school  preparation,  but 
who  lacked  the  professional  training. 

4.  Beginning  with  the  school  year,  1924-25,  the  require- 
ment of  a  three-year  high  school  education  plus  nine  months 
(one  school  year)  of  professional  training  in  a  higher  profes- 
sional institution. 

5.  Beginning  with  the  school  year  1926-27,  the  require- 
ment of  a  four-year  high  school  education  plus  two  years  of 
professional  training  in  a  higher  professional  institution. 

It  would  thus  be  practicable  within  seven  years  to  raise 
the  level  of  the  public  school  service  in  New  Mexico  to  the  plane 
now  recognized  as  constituting  the  lowest  acceptable  minimum 
for  teachers  of  any  grade;  namely  two  years  of  professional 
preparation  upon  the  basis  of  a  four-year  high  school  education. 
I  should  earnestly  recommend  the  requirement  of  four  years 
of  preparation  on  the  collegiate  level  not  later  than  1930. 

The  chief  difficulty  in  setting  this  standard  in  New  Mexico 
is  the  rural  school  situation,  and  yet,  in  several  counties,  each 
having  a  large  number  of  schools  in  the  open  country,  the  one- 
year  and  two-year  standards  have  already  been  closely  ap- 
proached. The  problem  can  be  solved.  For  the  sake  of  New 
Mexico's  children  its  progressive  solution  through  a  ten-year 
program,  should  in  my  judgment,  be  the  first  large  step  that 
the  State  takes  toward  the  betterment  of  its  school  system. 

I  am  aware  of  the  difficulties  imposed  by  the  Spanish- 
American  schools  in  the  rural  districts — difficulties  that  com- 
plicate the  educational  problem  in  New  Mexico  in  a  measure 
perhaps  unapproached  in  any  other  state  of  the  Union.  I  am 
also  aware  that  the  State  inherited  this  problem  from  the  long 
territorial  years  during  which  the  Federal  government  neglect- 
ed its  plain  duty  of  assimilating  the  population  that  it  acquired 
through  the  treaty  of  Hidalgo  Guadalupe.  But  all  this  does 
not  lessen  the  need  for  better  schools  and  for  better  teachers  in 
many  of  the  village  and  open-country  schools  of  New  Mexico. 
I  learned  that  there  are  rural  schools  in  New  Mexico,  the  teach- 
ers of  which  have  had  only  sixth  grade  education.  One  of  these 
schools  I  personally  visited.  In  several  schools,  the  English 
language  is  practically  unheard ;  in  many  it  is  very  inadequate- 
ly taught  as  a  ' 'foreign  language."  I  quote  from  the  manu- 
script report  of  one  of  the  rural  school  supervisors,  dated  Octo- 
ber 3,  1920 : 

"In  spite  of  all  efforts  a  large  number  of  teachers  are 
still  conducting  all  of  their  work  in  Spanish,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence the  children  know  little  or  no  spoken  English. 
Many  of  the  progressive  Spanish-speaking  people  have  ex- 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  15 

pressed  their  dissatisfaction  with  conditions  in  this  re- 
spect, and  have  earnestly  requested  that  they  be  supplied 
with  teachers  who  will  teach  their  children  to  speak  Eng- 
lish. The  practice  of  translating  everything  into  Spanish 
is  working  an  irreparable  injury  to  the  children.  So  long 
as  they  know  that  all  their  school  work  and  all  directions 
given  in  the  school  room  will  be  translated  into  Spanish 
there  is  but  little  incentive  to  learn  English,  and  they  see 
no  real  necessity  of  applying  themselves  in  order  to  learn 
the  spoken  language.  The  teachers  of  our  town  and  city 
schools  made  this  discovery  long  ago.  They  confine  them- 
selves to  the  English  language  and  give  no  translation 
and,  as  a  result,  a  few  weeks  after  entering  school  their 
little  folks  are  able  to  understand  and  to  make  themselves 
understood  in  English,  and  at  the  end  of  a  few  months 
they  speak  the  language  fairly  well.  If  a  teacher  can  be 
induced  to  confine  herself  to  the  English  while  in  the 
school  room,  she  accomplishes  more  in  a  few  weeks  than 
she  does  in  ten  years  through  translation.  In  some  in- 
stances I  have  worked  with  teachers  until  a  great  im- 
provement was  evident ;  but  upon  returning  to  the  schools 
a  few  weeks  later  have  found  that  they  have  gone  back 
to  the  old  practice  of  translating  as  this  is  much  easier 
than  to  teach  the  children  to  understand  and  to  speak 
English  ****** 

"As  all  of  our  schools  are  not  yet  supplied  with  teach- 
ers, I  am  unable  to  tabulate  information  in  regard  to  the 
grade  of  certificates  held  but  I  believe  that  our  rank  will 
be  much  lower  than  it  was  last  year.  It  has  not  been  a 
difficult  year  to  secure  teachers,  but  we  have  many  teach- 
ers who  are  teaching  on  permits.  I  should  strongly  recom- 
mend that  no  one  be  given  a  position  unless  he  holds  a 
certificate  at  the  time  he  is  employed.  There  are  several 
young  girls  teaching  who  failed  to  secure  certificates  at 
the  August  examination  and  who  received  such  low  aver- 
ages that  it  is  almost  a  certainty  that  they  will  fail  in  Oc- 
tober. They  will  either  have  to  continue  teaching  without 
certificates  or  other  teachers  will  have  to  be  secured  to 
take  their  places.  In  either  case  the  effects  will  be  bad 
for  both  teachers  and  children.  These  girls  told  me  that 
if  they  had  not  secured  schools  this  year  they  would  have 
attended  school,  and  I  believe  that  by  next  year  they  could 
have  qualified  for  second  grade  certificates.  We  have  one 
teacher  who,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  has  never  held  a  certi- 
ficate. This  summer  he  attended  summer  school  ten  days 
and  failed  as  usual  at  the  August  examination.  We  still 
have  several  men  teaching  who  do  not  understand  enough 


16  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

spoken  English  to  enable  them  to  take  instruction  in 
methods  in  the  English  language,  and  who  could  not  con- 
fine themselves  to  English  if  they  desired.  The  condition 
of  our  schools  is,  I  firmly  believe,  keeping  out  many  well- 
to-do  progressive  English-speaking  people.  Many  men 
have  told  me  that  they  would  like  to  make  permanent 
homes  here.  They  think  it  a  splendid  opportunity  for 
their  children  to  learn  Spanish  but  they  do  not  want  them 
to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  language  at  the  expense  of 
their  English  education;  so  they  are  opposed  to  placing 
them  in  schools  in  charge  of  teachers  who  speak  very  poor 
English  and  Avho  conduct  their  schools  in  the  Spanish 
language.  We  have  two  Spanish-speaking  girls  teaching 
in  English-speaking  districts  this  year,  and  they  are  giv- 
ing splendid  satisfaction;  but  they  both  speak  good  Eng- 
lish and  are  conducting  their  schools  in  English.  We  have 
lost  several  of  our  best  teachers  this  year.  In  several  cases 
they  gave  as  their  reason  for  leaving  us  that  we  did  not 
have  sufficient  school  furniture,  equipment  or  conven- 
iences in  our  schools. 

"  Having  gathered  information  from  every  possible 
source,  I  believe  that  we  rank  lower  than  most  other  coun- 
ties in  the  State  in  the  grade  of  certificates  held  by  our 
teachers,  in  school  room  furniture  and  equipment  and  in 
the  knowledge  of  spoken  English  which  our  children 
possess/' 

In  all  probability,  the  problem  of  the  Spanish-American 
rural  districts  cannot  be  permanently  solved  until  each  isolated 
school  has  its  teachers'  cottage  where  the  two  or  three  teachers 
employed  in  the  school  can  live  in  some  measure  of  comfort,  or 
where  a  man  and  his  wife  can  make  a  comfortable  home.  In 
the  northwestern  states,  especially  Washington,  this  policy  of 
providing  "teacherages"  for  the  open-country  schools  is  grad- 
ually transforming  these  isolated  posts  into  attractive  positions 
in  which  good  teachers  are  willing  to  serve  for  extended  periods 
of  time. 

But  pending  this  solution  of  the  problem  in  New  Mexico, 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  good  reason  why  the  obstacles  that 
block  educational  advancement  in  certain  limited  sections 
should  be  permitted  to  check  progress  throughout  the  State. 

Assuming  that  the  preparation  of  all  teachers  is  to  be 
placed  upon  an  institutional  basis  and  within  a  few  years  upon 
a  collegiate  basis,  it  is  necessary  to  answer  the  question,  What 
will  this  mean  to  the  State  in  cost  of  preparing  a  sufficient 
number  of  teachers  to  meet  these  higher  standards? 

This  leads  to  a  consideration  of  the  annual  "turnover"  in 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  17 

public  school  service.  The  State  Superintendent  reports  the 
animal  turnover  in  the  rural  school  service  to  be  one  in  three. 
The  percentage  this  year  for  twenty  of  the  twenty-seven  coun- 
ties in  the  State  appear  in  the  following  table,  furnished  by  the 
State  Superintendent 's  office  : 

County  Percentage  New  Teachers 

Employed,  or  Turnover 

Bernaliflo ...18% 

Chaves  50% 

Colfax    40% 

Curry  

De  Baca , 46% 

Dona  Ana 38% 

Eddy 35% 

Grant 50% 

Guadalupe 

Hidalgo  72% 

Lea  52% 

Lincoln 17% 

Luna 50% 

McKinley 49%% 

Mora 

Otero   50% 

Quay 40% 

Rio  Arriba  33% 

Roosevelt , 

Sandoval  33% 

San  Juan 35% 

San  Miguel  

Santa  Fe 20% 

Sierra 

Socorro 

Taos  13% 

Torrence   50% 

Union  51% 

Valencia 

If  the  average  turnover  be  33  1-3  per  cent,  the  estimate 
given  to  me  by  State  Superintendent  Wagner,  the  number  of 
new  teachers  needed  for  the  rural  schools  each  year  upon  the 
present  population-basis  would  be  approximately  185.  To  pro- 
vide for  all  contingencies,  let  us  place  the  number  at  200. 

Town  and  city  elementary  teachers  usually  serve  much 
longer  than  rural  school  teachers.  Taking  the  country  as  a 
whole,  the  average  term  of  service  T  have  estimated  as  about 
nine  years.  In  New  Mexico  the  term  is  probably  shorter,  inas- 

/ 


18  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

much  as  about  one-half  of  the  town  and  city  elementary  teach- 
ers come  from  other  states  and  "move  on"  after  remaining  in 
New  Mexico  for  a  year  or  two.  This  migrating  character  of 
the  teaching  personnel  is  unfortunate  for  the  New  Mexico 
schools  for  it  means  that  large  numbers  of  teachers  have  no 
vital  interest  in  the  State  and  its  problems.  One  way  to  correct 
this  defect  is  to  prepare  a  larger  number  of  New  Mexico  young- 
people  for  this  service.  This  policy,  State  Superintendent  Wag- 
ner assured  me,  would  do  much  to  stabilize  the  service  and  to 
extend  the  average  professional  "life"  of  the  teacher. 

I  have  estimated  the  annual  "turnover"  in  the  town  and 
city  elementary  schools  at  one  in  seven.  The  State  Superin- 
tendent's office  has  recently  informed  me  that  the  turnover 
in  this  branch  of  the  service  last  year  was  almost  exactly  this 
— fifteen  per  cent.  If  this  proportion  be  taken  as  represent- 
ing the  normal  "turnover,"  the  number  of  urban  elementary 
teachers  needed  annually  on  the  present  population  basis  would 
be  in  the  neighborhood  of  236 — let  us  say  250  for  good  measure. 

High  school  teachers'  tenure  is  extremely  variable  in  the 
different  states.  In  New  Mexico,  the  period  of  service  is  ap- 
parently longer  than  in  most  states — a  "turnover"  of  one- 
tenth  is  reported  by  Mr.  Wagner.  This  means  that  about  27  new 
high  school  teachers  are  needed  each  year.  There  is  here,  how- 
ever, the  need  of  a  predictable  increase  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration, and  the  number  that  will  be  required  each  year  for 
the  next  decade  may  safely  be  placed  at  40. 

One  can  look  forward,  then,  to. a  maximum  of  200  rural 
school  teachers,  250  graded  school  teachers,  and  40  high  school 
teachers  needed  each  year  on  the  present  population-basis  as 
recruits  for  the  public  school  service — a  total  of  490  in  all. 

The  population  will  increase,  of  course,  but  with  a  thor- 
ough-going program  for  the  more  extended  preparation  of 
teachers  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  this  number  of  re- 
cruits needed  for  the  public  school  service  will  be  greatly  aug- 
mented during  the  next  few  decades  (except  possibly  for  the 
high  schools),  for  it  is  a  fairly  well  established  law  that  length 
of  service  increases  with  length  of  training — hence  the  propor- 
tion of  new  teachers  required  each  year  will  actually  decrease 
and  even  the  numbers  themselves  may  decrease  as  the  require- 
ments for  admission  to  the  service  are  advanced  and  the  aver- 
age tenure  of  the  individual  teacher  is  extended.  It  should 
also  be  said  that  the  above  estimates  represent  a  maximum 
rather  than  a  minimum  of  expectancy,  and  it  should  be  further 
said  that  the  estimates  leave  out  of  account  the  teachers  who 
may  come  from  other  states. 

It  should  not  be  an  impossible  task  for  the  normal  schools 
of  New  Mexico  to  prepare  200  teachers  each  year  for  the  rural 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  19 

school  service  and  250  for  the  graded  school  service,  requiring 
from  each  four  years  of  high  school  preparation  for  entrance  to 
the  higher  institution  and  graduating  certificated  teachers  only 
after  a  minimum  of  two  years  of  specialized  preparation  for  the 
important  service  that  they  are  to  enter.  This  would  mean  an 
enrollment  in  teacher-training  courses  of  about  950  students. 
It  would  mean  entering  classes  of  approximately  500  students 
and  here  the  chief  difficulty  will  lie,  for  this  is  more  than  the 
present  total  output  (452)  of  four-year  high  schools  in  New 
Mexico.  The  difficulty,  however,  is  more  apparent  than  real. 
Until  the  local  and  county  high  schools  are  in  a  position  to  con- 
tribute a  larger  number  of  entering  students,  the  teacher-train- 
ing institutions  themselves  will  be  justified  in  supporting  as 
they  do  now  secondary  or  preparatory  departments  which  will 
attract  large  numbers  of  pupils  from  districts  where  high  school 
facilities  are  not  now  available. 

The  cost  to  the  State  of  carrying  out  such  a  program  of 
teacher-preparation  would  of  course  exceed  what  the  State  is 
now  spending  for  teacher-training; — but  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that,  under  its  present  expenditures,  it  is  adequately  pre- 
paring only  a  handful  of  teachers.  The  per  capita  cost  of  in- 
struction in  teacher-training  institutions  of  the  type  that  I  have 
in  mind  will  be  about  $400  annually  exclusive  of  whatever  pay- 
ments are  made  for  transportation  of  students  to  and  from  their 
homes.  The  institutions  would  enroll  in  all  950  students;  thus 
the  annual  cost  of  maintenance  would  be  $380,000.  Today  the 
normal  schools  have  a  combined  annual  budget  about  one-third 
as  large  as  this  but  they  are  not  preparing  one-tenth  of  the 
teachers  that  the  State  needs.  By  effecting  in  them  and  in 
other  state-supported  institutions  economies  the  nature  of 
which  will  be  suggested  later,  the  State,  without  seriously  in- 
creasing its  tax-burden,  could  step  forward  to  this  new  level 
in  the  discharge  of  what  is  clearly  and  indisputably  its  most 
important  function — the  preparation  of  teachers  for  its  public 
schools. 

There  is  another  fact  in  this  connection  that  deserves  large 
emphasis.  The  program  that  I  have  suggested,  if  properly 
worked  out  and  administered,  will  increase  beyond  all  measure 
the  efficiency  of  the  public  school  system.  This,  in  turn,  will 
be  reflected  in  the  students  who  go  on  to  the  higher  institutions, 
and  the  institutions  themselves  will  be  in  a  position  to  do  much 
better  work  and  to  make  a  larger  return  to  the  taxpayers 
through  the  actual  service  rendered  to  the  State  by  their  gradu- 
ates in  all  departments. 

I  should  not  wish  to  conclude  this  phase  of  the  discussion 
without  again  emphasizing  my  belief  that  the  minimum  of  two 
years  beyond  high  school  graduation  that  I  have  referred  to  as 


20  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

the  lowest  acceptable  standard  in  the  preparation  of  teachers 
should  be  extended  to  three  and  ultimately  to  four  years.  Pro- 
gressive states  are  already  planning  for  such  extensions.  Cali- 
fornia will  soon  go  to  the  four-year  basis ;  New  York  will  pass 
within  a  year  to  a  three-year  basis  with,  the  prospect  of  a  speedy 
advance  to  the  four-year  level ;  Washington  is  considering  simi- 
larly progressive  policies ;  New  Mexico  will  wish,  I  am  sure,  to 
do  no  less  for  its  children  once  the  value  of  a  more  extended 
preparation  for  public  school  teachers  has  been  clearly  dem- 
onstrated. 

The  preparation  of  high  school  teachers  has  until  recently 
been  looked  upon  as  a  function  of  the  liberal  arts  colleges 
rather  than  as  a  function  of  the  normal  schools.  The  present 
tendency  among  students  of  the  problem  is  to  minimize  distinc- 
tions between  the  elementary  and  high  school  teachers  and  to 
insist  that  all  teaching  positions  ,m  the  public  school  service  be 
recognized  as  of  equal  significance.  I  have  just  referred  to  a 
parallel  tendency  in  some  of  the  progressive  states  to  extend 
the  period  of  training  for  elementary  teachers  and  to  adopt 
policies  looking  toward  the  time  when  all  teachers  will  have  a 
minimum  of  four  years'  preparation  beyond  high  school  gradu- 
ation. Other  states  have  anticipated  this  movement  by  permit- 
ting their  normal  schools  to  offer  four-year  programs  for  the 
preparation  of  high  school  teachers. 

This  last  policy  involves  dangers  that  demand  serious  con- 
sideration. The  most  significant  of  these  is  that  the  normal 
schools  in  their  effort  to  prepare  high  school  teachers  will  ne- 
glect the  more  important  service  of  preparing  elementary  teach- 
ers. The  ideal  of  equal  training  for  both  types  of  teachers  is, 
in  my  judgment,  worth  striving  to  attain  at  the  earliest  pos- 
sible moment;  but  in  some  of  the  states  where  the  normal 
schools  have  undertaken  the  preparation  of  high  school  teach- 
ers the  advancement  of  the  requirements  for  elementary  teach- 
ers has  been  actually  delayed,  the  courses  for  the  elementary 
teachers  have  been  neglected,  and  students  have  been  either 
pointed  away  from  the  elementary  service  or  encouraged  to  use 
it  as  a  'stepping-stone  to  high  school  appointments. 

Wherever  normal  schools  can  profitably  offer  well  con- 
structed three-year  and  four-year  programs  for  elementary 
teachers,  there  would  be  certainly  no  danger  and  conceivably 
large  advantages  in  also  offering  four-year  programs  for  pros- 
pective secondary  teachers,  provided,  of  course,  that  they  are 
equipped  and  staffed  to  undertake  this  additional  work.  There 
are  undeniable  advantages  in  having  all  types  of  public  school 
teachers  prepared  in  the  same  institution ;  and  there  is  an  ob- 
vious injustice  to  the  elementary  school  service  in  having  the 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  21 

normal  schools  which  prepare  for  that  service  rated  lower  than 
any  other  group  of  professional  institutions. 

Under  present  conditions  in  New  Mexico,  the  preparation 
of  high  school  teachers  is  distributed  among  the  four  institu- 
tions— the  University,  the  College  of  Agriculture,  and  the  two 
normal  schools.  No  one  of  these  institutions  is  adequately 
equipped  to  render  this  service.  In  a  later  section  of  this  re- 
port, I  shall  make  suggestions  looking  toward  possible  solutions 
of  this  problem. 

III.   THE  STATE  HIGHER  INSTITUTIONS. 

A.  The  Normal  Schools. 

1  visited  the  normal  schools  at  Las  Vegas  and  Silver  City, 
spending  a  day  and  a  half  at  the  former  and  a  day  at  the  latter. 
In  view  of  the  brevity  of  these  visits  it  will  be  understood,  of 
course,  that  my  remarks  regarding  the  schools  and  their  work 
should  be  looked  upon  as  impressions  rather  than  as  final  judg- 
ments. In  each  school  I  examined  the  students'  records;  in- 
spected the  plant ;  visited  classes ;  and  conferred  with  the  presi- 
dent and  with  certain  instructors.  At  Las  Vegas  I  met  with  the 
board  of  trustees  and  discussed  problems  of  normal  school  ad- 
ministration. At  Las  Vegas,  also,  I  visited  two  neighboring 
rural  schools  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  an  idea  of  the  problem 
of  preparing  rural  school  teachers. 

The  State  Normal  University.  The  origin  of  the  name 
"university"  as  applied  to  this  institution  I  did  not  learn.  I 
surmise  that  it  was  in  imitation  of  the  Illinois  State  Normal 
University.  The  latter  school  was  founded  in  1852  and  as- 
sumed the  title  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  Congressional 
act  donating  a  substantial  acreage  of  public  land  to  each  state 
carved  out  of  the  national  domain  for  a  "university."  Both  in 
Illinois  and  in  New  Mexico,  of  course,  the  designation  is  a  mis- 
nomer. 

The  New  Mexico  State  Normal  University  is  fairly  well  lo- 
cated in  the  sense  that  Las  Vegas  is  accessible  to  students  from 
the  Northeastern  part  of  the  state,  and  apparently  as  conven- 
iently accessible  as  is  any  town  of  its  size  to  the  North  Central 
and  Northwestern  parts.  The  townspeople  seem  to  be  very  well- 
disposed  toward  the  normal  school. 

The  plant  is  well  located  within  the  town,  and,  with  the 
completion  of  the  new  building,  would  doubtless  be  adequate 
to  the  needs  of  the  academic  and  theory  classes.  The  training 
school,  however,  is  not  sufficiently  well  housed  or  equipped  and 
is  far  too  small  to  serve  as  a  laboratory  for  the  normal  school 
should  the  latter  attempt  to  supply  the  teachers  that  it  should 
supply  riow: — much  less  those  that  the  program  set  forth  above 


22  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

would  require  from  it.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  training- 
school  enrollment  was  190  and  the  average  daily  attendance 
163.  There  are  six  class-rooms  and  the  aim  is  to  have  about  30 
pupils  in  each  room.  I  was  informed  by  the  director  of  the 
training  department  that  not  more  than  20  normal  school 
students  are  now  given  practice  teaching  in  this  school  during 
the  year.  The  enrollment  of  training  school  pupils  is  adequate 
to  this  small  number  of  student-teachers.  It  is  clear,  however, 
that  the  school  should  prepare  far  more  than  20  competent 
teachers  a  year.  If,  as  we  have  suggested,  the  state  were  to 
prepare  all  of  its  elementary  school  recruits  in  the  two  normal 
schools,  each  of  these  institutions  would  have  to  turn  out  each 
year  225  graduates.  To  supply  the  lowest  acceptable  minimum 
of  practice  for  each  of  the  students  and  at  the  same  time  not  do 
an  injustice  to  the  pupils  in  the  training  school,  there  should  be 
available  for  training  school  purposes  at  least  1,000  children. 
To  meet  this  need  by  far  the  best  plan  would  be  to  organize  all 
of  the  elementary  schools  of  Las  Vegas  as  a  laboratory  of  the 
normal  school.  Plans  of  this  sort  have  been  worked  out  with 
notable  success  in  connection  with  the  state  normal  schools  at 
Dillon,  Montana ;  Gunnison,  Colorado ;  Albion,  Idaho ;  and  else- 
where. 

Even  if  the  Normal  School  at  Las  Vegas  undertakes 
nothing  more  than  it  is  now  doing,  more  abundant  practice  fa- 
cilities are  necessary.  The  only  students  now  having  the  priv- 
ileges of  actual  teaching  practice  are  the  second-year  students 
of  the  two-year  collegiate  curriculum.  The  first-year  students 
and  those  enrolled  in  secondary  and  elementary  classes  are 
given  no  opportunity  to  gain  initial  skill  in  teaching  under  com- 
petent supervision  although  many  of  them  are  permitted  to 
teach,  even  immediately  after  completing  eighth  grade  work. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  boys  and  girls  so  immature  and 
so  limited  in  their  educational  equipment  as  are  eighth  grade 
graduates  should  not  be  licensed  to  teach.  As  long  as  this  con- 
dition exists,  however,  it  would  seem  to  be  incumbent  upon  the 
normal  schools  to  let  them  learn  a  little  about  the  art  of  teach- 
ing by  practicing  that  art  at  the  normal  school  under  very 
careful  supervision.  I  can  see  no  justice  in  the  contention  that 
the  training  school  pupils  must  not  be  subjected  to  such  imma- 
ture teaching  when  these  child-teachers  are  permitted  to  go 
into  isolated  rural  schools  and  undertake  teaching  under  condi- 
tions infinitely  more  difficult  and  with  consequences  far  more 
disastrous  to  the  pupils  who  are  " taught/' 

If  this  position  is  granted  with  reference  to  the  eighth 
grade  graduates,  its  justification  is  equally  clear  with  reference 
to  the  students  and  graduates  of  the  high  school  department  of 
the  normal  school  who  are  now  sent  into  the  rural  schools  as 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  23 

teachers  without  any  preliminary  practical  training.  Since 
1901,  the  students  graduating  from  the  high  school  department 
at  Las  Vegas  have  aggregated  315  in  number,  and  of  these  166, 
or  more  than  one-half,  have  at  once  gone  as  teachers  into  one- 
room  or  two-room  schools.  Out  of  42  graduates  last  June,  23 
are  now  in  the  rural  school  service — and  with  substantially  no 
training  of  a  practical  sort. 

It  would  be  thoroughly  feasible  for  the  normal  school  to 
organize  a  system  of  participation  in  class-room  teaching  that 
would  be  extremely  helpful  to  these  young  students;  but  such 
a  system  would  require  a  much  larger  training  school  enroll- 
ment than  is  now  available.  A  larger  training  school  enroll- 
ment would  also  be  required  if  the  state  should  decree  that 
teachers  should  no  longer  be  licensed  on  the  basis  of  so  slender 
an  equipment  as  these  high  school  students  and  graduates  rep- 
resent. In  either  event,  then,  the  Normal  School  needs  more 
extended  practice  facilities. 

The  enrollment  of  students  on  the  collegiate  level  in  the 
fall  of  1920  was : 

Freshmen    .27 

Sophomores 24 

Juniors 2 

Seniors 3 

The  graduates  from  collegiate  classes  in  1920  numbered  31 ; 
of  these  30  are  teaching.  In  1919,  the  graduates  numbered  6, 
of  whom  all  entered  the  public  school  service.  It  is  clear,  then, 
that  the  State  Normal  University  is  sending  its  graduates  into 
the  public  schools  in  a  most  commendable  proportion. 

The  institution  confers  upon  students  who  have  completed 
the  first  two  years  of  work  on  the  collegiate  level  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Pedagogy,  and  upon  the  completion  of  a  third  year, 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Pedagogy.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say  that  the  practice  of  offering  a  Bachelor's  degree  for  any 
work  that  falls  short  of  the  standard  four  years  of  resident 
study  based  upon  graduation  from  a  four-year  high  school,  or 
the  Master's  degree  for  less  than  five  years,  is  to  be  condemned 
in  the  strongest  terms.  Such  degrees  have  long  been  discredit- 
ed in  the  better  normal  schools. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  normal  schools  should  not  be  rated 
as  "colleges"  in  so  far  as  they  require  for  admission  to  colle- 
giate curricula  four  years  of  high  school  preparation;  nor  does 
it  mean  that  normal  schools  should  not  offer  degrees  upon  the 
basis  of  full  four  years'  residence.  Whether  the  New  Mexico 
normal  schools  should  provide  four-year  curricula  leading  to 
the  Bachelor's  degree  under  present  conditions  is  a  problem 
that  will  be  discussed  later  in  this  report. 


24  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

The  records  of  the  State  Normal  University,  in  so  far  as  I 
could  determine  by  a  brief  examination,  were  in  excellent  con- 
dition. Students  are  not  registered  for  work  of  collegiate  grade 
unless  they  have  collegiate  standing,  and  the  high  school  cre- 
dentials of  such  students  are  on  file  and  readily  accessible. 

The  curricula  of  the  normal  schools  at  both  Las  Vegas  and 
Silver  City  need  thorough-going  revision.  The  elective  priv- 
ileges are,  I  believe,  far  too  elastic  for  professional  institutions 
that  aim  to  prepare  recruits  for  types  of  service  the  demands 
of  which  are  in  general  clearly  predictable.  The  required  sub- 
jects are  not,  in  my  judgment,  the  best  that  could  be  chosen. 
Well  organized  relations  between  subject-matter  departments 
and  the  training  school  are  not  in  evidence.  In  neither  school 
are  there  special  facilities  for  the  preparation  of  rural  school 
teachers  although  both  schools  send  large  contingents  of  re- 
cruits into  the  rural  school  service.  In  connection  with  neither 
school  did  I  find  rural  training  centers  or  well  organized  de- 
partments dealing  with  rural  school  problems. 

It  is  my  judgment  that,  irrespective  of  the  adoption  or  re- 
jection of  the  program  that  I  have  suggested  for  the  extension 
of  the  period  of  training,  the  curricula  of  the  normal  schools 
should  be  subjected  to  a  searching  revision.  To  this  end,  I 
strongly  urge  that  the  faculties  of  the  two  schools  meet  in  con- 
ference at  Albuquerque  or  Santa  Fe  during  the  first  week  of 
the  next  school  year  and  attack  this  problem.  After  prelimi- 
nary discussion,  committees  could  be  appointed  to  work  during 
the  following  year.  A  second  conference  could  be  held  at  the 
time  of  the  annual  meeting  of  the  State  Teachers'  Association, 
and  a  third  conference  at  the  close  of  the  year  when  a  report 
of  recommendations  could  be  adopted  for  presentation  to  the 
governing  boards  of  the  institutions.  The  authorities  that  have 
to  do  with  the  licensing  of  teachers  and  two  representatives 
each  of  the  county  and  city  superintendents  should  meet  with 
the  instructors  in  these  conferences,  and  the  report  should  aim 
to  lay  down  a  thorough-going  program  for  the  preparation  of 
teachers  for  the  public  schools  of  New  Mexico.  The  expenses 
of  such  conferences  should,  in  my  opinion,  be  borne  by  the 
State.  The  investment  would  not  be  heavy  and  it  would  yield 
returns  out  of  all  proportions  to  the  cost — not  only  returns  in 
the  shape  of  a  more  adequate  program,  but  also  returns  in  the 
form  of  a  greatly  enhanced  interest  of  the  normal  school  in- 
structors in  their  problems.  I  may  say  that  the  general  plan 
has  been  followed  with  very  great  success  in  Massachusetts  and 
in  Wisconsin — in  the  latter  state  the  teachers  themselves  initi- 
ated the  movement  last  year  and  bore  all  of  the  expenses;  in 
the  former  state  the  expenses  of  an  annual  conference  of  all 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  25 

normal  school  instructors  are  paid  by  the  State  Board  of 
Education. 

In  general,  the  faculties  of  the  normal  schools  should  be 
charged  with  larger  responsibilities  than  have  as  yet  been  given 
them  for  determining,  under  sane  regulations,  the  policies  of 
the  schools. 

In  common  with  similar  institutions  throughout  the  coun- 
try, the  normal  schools  of  New  Mexico  both  underpay  and  over- 
work their  instructors.  A  revision  of  the  curricula  should  do 
much  to  correct  the  latter  injustice  by  eliminating  the  necessity 
for  offering  so  many  separate  courses  and  dealing  with  so 
many  small  classes.  It  is  possible,  although  hardly  probable, 
that  such  a  reorganization  would*  permit  the  work  of  the  insti- 
tutions to  be  done  with  a  relatively  smaller  number  of  instruct- 
ors and  thus  make  possible  a  higher  salary.  The  "  teaching 
load"  of  the  normal  school  instructor  should  not  exceed  sixteen 
class-hours  each  week.  In  making  this  determination,  two 
hours  of  laboratory  work,  training  school  supervision,  or  stated 
conferences  (conferences,  for  example,  of  supervisors  with  stu- 
dent-teachers) should  be  counted  as  one  and  one-half  class- 
hours  ;  where  classes  are  sectioned  thus  permitting  the  instruct- 
or to  repeat  the  same  work  in  different  sections,  the  same  rule 
should  be  followed  in  determining  the  total  "load." 

The  State  Normal  School  at  Silver  City.  The  location  of 
this  institution  has  two  things  to  commend  it:  (1)  the  climate 
of  the  high  plateau  on  which  Silver  City  is  situated,  and  (2) 
the  progressive  character  of  the  community.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  accessibility,  the  school  is  very  poorly  located.  It  is 
in  a  cul  de  sac,  indeed,  as  far  as  railroad  transportation  is  con- 
cerned, and  is  furthermore  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  State. 

The  enrollment  in  the  State  Normal  School  at  the  time  of 
my  visit  numbered  43  on  the  collegiate  level  and  189  on  the  high 
school  level.  In  view  of  the  isolated  situation  of  Silver  City, 
the  distribution  of  its  students  and  pupils  as  to  their  homes  be- 
comes an  important  question.  Forty  of  the  43  collegiate  stu- 
dents are  included  in  the  following  summary: 

From  Outside  the  State 1 

From  Silver  City 6 

From  Grant  County  Outside  of  Silver  City 5 

From  Chaves  County  7 

From  Curry  County  2 

From  Eddy  County 

From  Lea  County  7 

From  Lincoln  County  1 

From  Luna  County 

From  McKinley  County 2 


26  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

From  Roosevelt  County 1 

From  San  Juan  County 2 

From  Sierra  County 1 

From  Union  County  1 

Total 40 

The  enrollment  in  high  school  classes  shows  the  following 
distribution : 

From  Outside  of  the  State 21 

From  Silver  City 64 

From  Grant  County  Outside  of  Silver  City 60 

From  Chaves  County  1 

From  Curry  County  4 

From  Eddy  County 1 

From  Dona  Ana  County 9 

From  Lincoln  County 3 

From  Luna  County  5 

From  McKinley  County - 1 

From  Hidalgo  County  3 

From  Otero  County  1 

From  Roosevelt  County  1 

From  Sierra  County 7 

From  Socorro  County 9 

From  Taos  County  1 

From  Torrance  County  1 

From  Valencia  County  1 


Total 193 

The  first  of  the  above  tables  gives  one  the  impression  that 
the  collegiate  enrollment  is  fairly  well  distributed.  When  I 
inquired  into  the  facts,  however,  I  found  that  the  relatively 
large  collegiate  enrollment  from  Chaves  and  Lea  counties  was 
frankly  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  president  of  the  Normal 
School  had  formerly  been  superintendent  of  schools  at  Roswell 
and  had  personally  drawn  a  number  of  students  from  the 
southeastern  part  of  the  State.  This  is,  of  course,  a  tribute  to 
the  president — but  it  does  not  prove  the  advantages  or  disad- 
vantages of  Silver  City  as  an  appropriate  place  in  which  to 
locate  a  normal  school. 

The  high  school  enrollment  is  predominantly  from  Grant 
county;  the  only  other  counties  contributing  significantly  to 
the  total  are  those  traversed  by  the  two  lines  of  railroad  that 
serve  the  extreme  southwestern  part  of  the  State. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  students  attending  the  normal 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  27 

school  from  a  distance  can  have  their  railroad  fare  refunded, 
it  is  clear  that  the  enrollment  in  the  "school  is  drawn  predomi- 
nantly from  the  city  in  which  the  school  is  located,  and  from 
easily  accessible  points  nearby. 

The  training  school  at  Silver  City,  like  that  at  Las  Vegas, 
is  relatively  small,  enrolling  this  year  about  150  pupils.  The 
training  school  is  fairly  well  housed  in  a  separate  building. 

Of  the  five  State  institutions  that  I  visited,  the  school  at 
Silver  City  has  in  many  ways  the  best  plant.  The  central  heat- 
ing plant,  the  manual  training  shops,  and  the  gymnasium  de- 
serve especially  to  be  commended. 

The  Silver  City  Normal  School,  like  the  school  at  Las 
Vegas,  attempts  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  rural  schools  through 
its  high  school  department  only.  Of  the  thirty  students  who 
graduated  last  year  from  the  collegiate  department,  three  are 
now  teaching  in  high  schools,  and  the  remaining  twenty-seven 
in  town  and  city  elementary  schools.  The  provisions  for  giv- 
ing practical  training  to  the  high  school  pupils  who  will  go  at 
once  into  the  rural  school  are  as  unsatisfactory  as  at  Las  Vegas. 
As  was  suggested  in  connection  with  the  latter  school,  it  is  my 
belief  that,  as  long  as  the  State  permits  these  immature  teach- 
ers to  undertake  the  responsible  work  of  the  rural  schools,  the 
normal  schools  should  give  to  them  the  very  best  training  that 
they  can;  this  the  normal  schools  are  not  doing  now.  Such 
training  would  involve  the  development  of  a  rural  school  de- 
partment, the  organization  of  rural  training  centers,  and  the 
use  of  the  local  schools  for  participation  and  practice  purposes 
by  students  preparing  for  the  rural  service. 

The  school  at  Silver  City  is  well  administered.  The  stu- 
dent records  are  well-kept  and  an  examination  of  them  indi- 
cates that  high  school  and  collegiate  students  are  provided  for 
in  separate  classes.  It  would  add  much  to  the  morale  of  the 
school  if  a  wider  distinction  should  be  made  between  the  sec- 
ondary pupils  and  the  students  enrolled  in  standard  normal 
school  curricula.  The  former  should  have  a  measure  of  super- 
vision that  the  latter  do  not  need.  Wherever  a  secondary  de- 
partment co-exists  with  a  collegiate  department  in  the  same 
institution,  it  is  my  belief  that  the  former  should  be  separately 
organized  Avith  a  separate  staff  and  a  separate  budget,  under 
the  administration  of  a  departmental  principal. 

The  Normal  School  seems  to  be  particularly  careful  in  pre- 
venting individual  students  from  attempting  programs  that  are 
too  heavy.  Those  desiring  to  undertake  more  than  sixteen 
semester  hours  are  required  to  have  an  average  standing  of  85 
in  all  subjects ;  each  case  is  passed  upon  by  a  faculty  commit- 
tee ;  and  there  is  an  understanding  that  twenty  hours  will  be 
the  maximum. 


28  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

As  at  Las  Vegas,  the  teachers  are  overloaded.  Basing  my 
calculations  on  the  standards  discussed  in  connection  with  the 
school  at  Las  Vegas,  I  find  that  eight  instructors  have  sched- 
ules ranging  from  twenty  to  twenty-six  class  hours  a  week,  and 
averaging  twenty-three  hours.  Schedules  of  this  sort  are  far 
too  heavy  for  the  very  important  work  that  the  preparation  of 
teachers  involves. 

The  Normal  School  at  Silver  City  offers  a  number  of  com- 
mercial courses.  In  so  far  as  these  are  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
paring teachers  of  commercial  subjects  in  the  high  schools,  their 
justification  in  a  teachers'  professional  school  is  obvious.  I  find 
from  the  directory  of  teachers  issued  by  the  State  Department 
of  Public  Instruction  that  the  number  of  commercial  teachers 
in  the  high  schools  of  New  Mexico  is  24,  outside  of  the  State  in- 
stitutions. Perhaps  three  or  four  are  needed  on  the  average 
each  year. 

I  am  somewhat  doubtful  that  all  or  even  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  students  enrolled  in  commercial  courses  at  Silver 
City  are  planning  to  teach  these  subjects  in  the  high  schools. 
The  following  student  program  is  fairly  typical  of  the  collegiate 
students  who  take  this  work : 

Psychology  5  hours 

U.  S.  History 2  hours 

Typewriting  (laboratory  practice) 10  hours 

Textiles  and  Clothing  (laboratory) 5  hours 

English 2  hours 

Physical  Training  2  hours 

This  student  is  in  the  second  year  of  the  standard  two- 
year  curriculum  (collegiate  level).  She  is  apparently  prepar- 
ing to  teach  in  a  graded  elementary  school.  To  fit  herself  for 
this  work  she  carried  during  the  term  in  question  17 %  semes- 
ter-hours of  work  (exclusive  of  physical  training)  of  which 
nearly  one-half  were  devoted  to  subjects  that  had  no  discov- 
erable relation  either  to  strictly  professional  preparation  or  to 
the  broader  culture  that  all  teachers  need.  In  response  to  an 
inquiry  as  to  the  justification  of  ten  hours  of  typewriting  in  a 
program  that  is  in  itself  all  too  brief  to  meet  the  needs. of  any 
teacher,  I  was  told  that  she  wished  to  learn  typewriting  in  order 
to  be  able  to  earn  money  during  the  summer  vacations.  The 
motive  is,  of  course,  a  sad  commentary  on  the  rewards  of  a  pro- 
fession that  is  recognized  as  basic  beyond  all  others  to  social 
welfare  and  progress ;  but  I  could  not  help  asking  why  studies 
were  not  required  that  would  enable  this  prospective  teacher  to 
earn  better  even  the  small  wage  that  she  will  receive  for  her 
teaching.  The  incident  may  seem  to  be  trivial,  but  it  reflects 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  29 

all  too  clearly  the  slight  respect  in  which  both  the  public  in 
general  and  students  who  seek  to  enter  the  service  of  the  pub- 
lic schools  view  the  work  which  that  service  represents. 

The  Spanish-American  Normal  School  at  El  Rito.  I  did  not 

visit  this  school.  I  took  occasion,  however,  to  discuss  its  or- 
ganization and  its  problem  with  several  persons  who,  I  had 
every  reason  to  believe,  were  disinterested  judges.  I  was  in- 
formed that  the  school  is  not  essentially  different  from  the  bet- 
ter class  of  New  Mexico  rural  schools  and  that  its  contribution 
to  the  supply  of  trained  teachers  for  the  State  is  negligible.  It 
is,  in  my  judgment,  a  questionable  policy  to  attempt  to  segre- 
gate the  preparation  of  teachers  fpr  the  Spanish- American  dis- 
tricts from  the  preparation  of  teachers  for  the  other  parts  of 
the  State.  The  problem  of  the  Spanish-American  rural  school 
is  a  real  problem  that  cannot  be  neglected.  The  conservation 
of  the  valuable  elements  in  the  Spanish-American  traditions 
and  culture  and  the  incorporation  of  these  elements  into  the 
spirit  and  ideals  of  the  commonwealth  is  likewise  important. 
But  both  of  these  problems,  I  am  confident,  can  be  best  solved 
by  having  in  the  teacher  training  institutions  strong  depart- 
ments devoted  to  the  preparation  of  competent  and  sympa- 
thetic teachers  for  these  schools,  and  by  having  in  these  insti- 
tutions and  also  in  the  University  of  New  Mexico  an  adequate 
representation  of  the  Spanish- American  elements  and  interests. 
Fusion  and  integration  should  be  the  motto,  not  separation  and 
segregation. 

B.  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY. 

I  spent  at  Albuquerque  only  about  twenty-four  hours — 
far  too  brief  a  time  to  do  more  than  gain  a  bird's  eye  view  of 
the  University  and  its  environment. 

The  city  has  been  well  selected  as  the  seat  of  the  State 
University.  Not  only  is  it  the  largest  city  in  the  State,  but  it 
is  also  centra]  in  its  location  and,  of  all  towns  in  the  State,  ap- 
parently the  most  easily  accessible  from  all  sections.  The  people 
of  the  community  have  demonstrated  their  interest  in  the  Uni- 
versity in  many  ways — most  recently  by  providing  funds  for 
a  building  to  house  the  department  of  home  economics. 

The  buildings  of  the  University  are  well  located,  and  con- 
stitute on  the  whole  a  fitting  nucleus  for  later  development. 

The  University  enrolled  at  the  time  of  my  visit  222  stu- 
dent s,  all  of  collegiate  grade.  The  distribution  among  the  sev- 
eral classes  was  as  follows: 


30  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

Freshmen 83 

Sophomores 61 

Juniors 30 

Seniors  19 

Graduates  1 

Special  Students  28 

Slightly  more  than  one-half  of  all  of  the  students  come 
from  Bernalillo  County.  The  distribution  as  to  counties  is 
shown  by  the  following  table : 

Bernalillo    : 128 

Chaves  , 10 

Colfax    .... 9 

Curry  2 

De  Baca 3 

Dona  Ana  1 

Eddy - 6 

Grant  1 

Guadalupe 1 

Lincoln    1 

Luna    2 

McKinley 5 

Mora    _ 1 

Otero    2 

Quay 3 

Rio  Arriba 1 

Roosevelt 5 

Santa  Fe  3 

San  Juan 3 

San  Miguel  3 

Union  1 

Outside  the  State ...  30 


Total 222 

The  University,  then,  like  the  Normal  School  at  Silver 
City,  is  predominantly  a  local  institution,  although  it  is  note- 
worthy that  distant  counties  which  have  good  high  school  fa- 
cilities send  fairly  large  contingents  of  students  to  the  institu- 
tion. This  is  more  clearly  shown  in  the  distribution  of  last 
year's  students;  of  the  total  number,  Chaves  county  contri- 
buted 20,  Colfax  county  17,  Curry  13,  and  Eddy  12. 

Approximately  thirteen  per  cent  of  this  year's  enrollment 
is  from  outside  the  State.  This  proportion  would  probably  be 
larger  if  one  included  the  students  who  have  assumed  resi- 
dence in  New  Mexico  merely  for  the  purpose  of  escaping  the 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  31 

non-resident  tuition  fee.  Last  year,  twenty  per  cent  of  the  en- 
tire registration  represented  out-of-state  residence.  It  is  rea- 
sonable to  assume  that  the  attractiveness  of  the  climate  in  New 
Mexico  will  always  bring  to  the  State  institutions  rather  more 
than  their  fare  share  of  out-of-state  students.  At  the  Univer- 
sity, the  tuition  for  such  students  is  now  $24.00  for  the  year; 
the  fee  for  residents  is  $10.00.  In  justice  to  the  latter  and  in 
justice  to  the  taxpayers  of  the  State,  I  believe  that  the  non- 
resident tuition  fee  should  be  increased  for  all  institutions. 
Even  if  it  were  as  much  as  $100  a  year  the  proceeds  on  the 
basis  of  the  present  non-resident  enrollment  would  be  far  below 
the  proportion  of  the  per  capita  cost  of  instruction  that  is 
borne  by  taxation  within  the  State. 

The  present  administration  of  the  University  of  New  Mexi- 
co is  sanely  aggressive  in  its  efforts  to  develop  the  institution. 
Preparatory  work  has  been  abandoned — and  quite  properly,  I 
think,  for  this  type  of  institution.  The  work  of  the  business 
and  registration  offices  seems  to  be  exceptionally  well  organ- 
ized. To  the  efforts  of  the  administration,  also,  is  due  in  large 
measure  the  successful  outcome  of  the  campaign  for  the  erec- 
tion of  the  home  economics  building. 

Very  small  classes  in  institutions  of  collegiate  grade  are 
frequently  a  source  of  criticism  when  the  cost  of  maintaining 
such  institutions  is  under  scrutiny.  It  is  questionable  how  far 
such  criticism  is  justified ;  it  is  clear  however  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  small  classes  means  that  a  relatively  large  amount 
of  work  is  being  offered  for  which  the  demand  is  slight.  Out 
of  a  total  of  96  courses  reporting  at  the  time  of  our  visit  to  the 
University  of  New  Mexico,  30  (or  31.2%)  had  enrollments  of 
fewer  than  five  students  each.  The  distribution  was  as  follows : 

3  courses  enrolled  1  student     each 
12  courses  enrolled  2  students  each 

7  courses  enrolled  3  students  each 

8  courses  enrolled  4  students  each 

The  smallest  enrollments  were  in  the  department  of  elec- 
trical engineering  and  the  department  of  music;  in  both  de- 
partments no  class  enrolled  more  than  four  students.  In  ge- 
ology, three  out  of  five  classes  had  fewer  than  five  students; 
in  civil  engineering,  three  out  of  six;  in  biology  and  in  home 
economics,  two  out  of  five ;  in  education,  one  out  of  three ;  and 
in  Greek  and  Latin,  two  out  of  four.  In  the  departments  of 
English,  philosophy  and  psychology,  economics,  physics,  and 
the  Romance  languages  there  were  no  classes  with  fewer  than 
five  registrations. 

The  staff  of  the  University  of  New  Mexico  is  beginning  to 


32  REPORT  ON  NEW 

• 

assume  the  characteristics  of  a  true  university  faculty,  al- 
though much  needs  still  to  be  accomplished  here.  The  salary 
schedule  is  quite  inadequate ;  the  average  for  full  professors  is 
nearly  $800  below  the  average  for  full  professors  in  the  institu- 
tions reported  in  a  recent  bulletin  of  the  Federal  Bureau  of  E*d- 
ucation.  It  is  significantly  below  the  average  in  the  state  uni- 
versities of  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  Coast  states.  The 
institution  will  do  well,  I  believe,  to  limit  the  expansion  of  de- 
partments until  it  is  in  a  position  to  pay  a  more  nearly  ade- 
quate wage  to  the  teachers  that  it  already  employs. 

Of  the  eighteen  living  graduates  of  the  class  of  1920,  the 
occupational  distribution  is  as  follows : 

Teaching  and  other  educational  work 9 

Chemist  1 

Electrical  engineer  1 

Accountants  2 

U-raduate  students 2 

Newspaper  work  1 

At  home  2 

The  chief  vocational  function  of  the  University  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  then,  seems  to  be  preparation  of  teachers.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that,  of  the  nine  now  engaged  in  educational 
work,  only  five  are  serving  in  New  Mexico.  The  University  at 
the  present  time  is  apparently  not  providing  as  many  teachers 
for  the  high  schools  as  are  the  two  normal  schools  and  the  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture.  It  is  my  opinion  that  the  University  does 
not  have  proper  facilities  for  the  preparation  of  high  school 
teachers  at  the  present  time.  Whether  it  should  develop  such 
facilities  is  a  question  that  I  shall  touch  upon  later. 

C.  THE  STATE  SCHOOL  OF  MINES. 

A  day  was  spent  at  the  State  School  of  Mines. 

The  location  of  this  institution  has  to  commend  it  the  prox- 
imity of  instructive  geological  formations  and  some  mining 
works,  now  abandoned,  that  serve  some  of  the  purposes  of  field 
study.  In  so  far  as  inspection  of,  and  participation  in,  actual 
mining  operations  by  the  students  are  concerned,  the  location 
of  the  school  seems  to  have  little  to  commend  it. 

The  school  is  too  far  from  town  to  be  readily  convenient. 
The  buildings  are  cheaply  constructed  and  impress  one  as  not 
well  kept  up. 

The  registration  at  the  time  of  our  visit  was  97.  Of  these 
21  were  students  ^assigned  to  the  institution  by  the  Federal 
Board  for  Vocational  Education.  Nine  students  are  sub-colle- 
giate in  status ;  of  these  eight  are  Federal  board  students. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  33 

The  distribution  among  the  four  collegiate  classes  was  as 
follows  : 

Freshmen .41 

Sophomore    : 38 

Junior    5 

Senior    2 

The  graduating  classes  for  the  past  four  years  have  been 
very  small  because  of  the  wrar.  Of  the  five  graduates  in  1919 
and  1920,  four  are  engaged  in  mining  or  closely  related  pur- 
suits ;  one  is  a  graduate  student  at  the  University  of  Utah.  None 
is  practicing  his  profession  in  New  Mexico. 

The  students  are  non-resident  in  a  measure  unapproached, 
I  believe  by  any  other  state-supported  institution  in  the  coun- 
try. Twenty-six  students  claim  to  be  residents  of  New  Mexico, 
but  seven  of  these  have  come  directly  from  other  states  and 
assume  New  Mexico  residence  presumably  for  the  purpose  of 
escaping  the  tuition  fees.  This  leaves  nineteen  students  bona 
fide  residents  of  the  state,  as  against  68  from  outside  of  the 
state  out  of  a  total  of  85.  Of  the  nine  sub-collegiate  students, 
six  are  from  outside  the  state.  Of  two  special  students,  one  is 
from  New  Mexico. 

A  study  of  the  student  schedules  and  the  teaching  sched- 
ules of-  this  school  reveals  in  both  cases  overloaded  programs. 
Students  are  permitted  to  carry  from  25  to  32  hours  of  work 
each  week  (counting  2  laboratory  hours  as  1  class  hour)  ;  while 
the  average  "load"  of  six  collegiate  instructors  is  24  hours  each 
week  (counting  ll/2  laboratory  hours  as  1  class  hour). 

It  is  clear  that  the  School  of  Mines  is  not  serving  the  state 
in  measure  that  the  vital  importance  of  its  field  to  the  state's 
prosperity  and  progress  demands.  It  is  enrolling  only  a  negli- 
gible proportion  of  New  Mexico  students;  none  of  its  gradu- 
ates of  the  past  two  years  is  developing  New  Mexico  mines; 
none  of  its  professors,  so  far  as  I  could  learn,  is  officially  en- 
gaged in  the  solution  of  the  special  problems  involved  in  the 
state's  mining  interests. 

However  one  may  view  the  other  state  institutions,  there 
can  be  little  question  that  the  wrork  represented  by  the  State 
School  of  Mines  should  be  radically  reorganized. 

D.  THE  NEW  MEXICO  COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE  AND 
MECHANIC  ARTS. 

I  spent  one  day  at  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  the  Me- 
chanic Arts.  The  morning1  was  given  over  in  large  part  to  a 
conference  with  the  secretary  and  board  of  trustees  in  which 
the  principal  topic  of  discussion  was  the  purpose  of  my  visit ; 


34  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

hence  I  was  unable  to  give  to  the  actual  study  of  the  College  so 
much  time  as  I  had  hoped  that  I  might  give.  The  president  of 
the  College  was  out  of  town,  but  Dean  J.  H.  Vaughn  showed 
me  every  possible  courtesy. 

The  College  seemed  to  me  to  be  fairly  well  located  for  its 
purposes  as  a  school  of  agricultural  instruction  and  investiga- 
tion. While  the  region  roundabout  is  not  typical  of  all  parts 
of  the  state,  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  no  single  locality  in 
so  extensive  and  so  widely  diversified  an  area  as  that  compris- 
ing New  Mexico  could  possibly  claim  that  distinction;  and  it 
should  be  said  as  well  that  the  region  of  which  Las  Cruces  and 
its  environment  are  typical  is  a  portion  of  the  state  that  is  very 
important  agriculturally. 

Las  Cruces,  too,  is  centrally  located  as  respects  the  south 
ern  half  of  the  state.  It  can  be  reached  without  much  difficulty 
from  points  north  as  far  at  least  as  Albuquerque;  from  the 
southwestern  counties  either  through  Rincon  or  through  El 
Paso  ;  and  from  the  southeastern  counties  through  El  Paso. 

The  buildings  of  the  school  do  not  impress  one  as  so  well 
constructed  or  so  well  kept  up  as  are  the  buildings  at  Las 
Vegas,  Albuquerque  and  Silver  City ;  but  for  the  college  farm, 
orchards,  and  gardens  I  should  have  nothing  but  the  highest 
praise. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  College  enrolled  326  students, 
of  whom  103  were  of  collegiate  grade,  77  were  students  as- 
signed by  the  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education  and 
were  largely  of  secondary  grade,  and  the  remainder  were  en- 
rolled in  preparatory  or  secondary  vocational  courses. 

The  distribution  of  the  collegiate  students  was  as  follows : 

Graduate  1 

Seniors 15 

Juniors 13 

Sophomores 24 

Freshmen 39 

Special  Students  21  years  old  in  collegiate  courses 11 


Total 103 

Of  the  secondary  students,  100  were  in  college  prepara- 
tory courses,  44  in  commercial  courses,  28  in  automobile  me- 
chanics courses,  and  46  in  agricultural  courses  of  secondary 
grade. 

The  median  age  of  the  entire  student  body  is  20.22  years ; 
of  the  students  in  auto  mechanics,  21.51  years ;  and  of  the  stu- 
dent's in  the  agricultural  short  courses,  25.11  years. 

The  student  records  seemed  to  be  in  good  shape.    Fifteen 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  35 

high  school  units  are  required  for  entrance  to  collegiate 
classes  (except  for  certain  special  students  who  are  at  least 
twenty-one  years  old)  ;  no  advanced  collegiate  standing  is  given 
for  secondary  work  beyond  15  units. 

The  students'  programs  are  well  administered.  The  av- 
erage college  student  carries  18  semester-hours  of  work.  The 
minimum  is  15  hours,  and  the  maximum  24.  Every  program 
beyond  18  hours  must  have  the  approval  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee. 

The  graduates  from  collegiate  classes  in  June,  1920  are  en- 
gaged this  year  in  the  following  occupations : 

Teaching  :. 7 

In  Smith-Hughes  work 1 

In  a  college  (biology) 1 

In  high  schools 5 

Engineering 7 

Agricultural  agent  1 

Mercantile  business 1 

Total 16 

The  collegiate  graduates  for  1919  are  distributed  as  follows : 

Agriculture  2 

Engineering   1 

Teaching  3 

Housework  3 

Secretarial  work  1 

Total 10 

_Dean  Vaughn  has  furnished  me  with  a  table  showing  the 
distribution  of  the  students  enrolled  in  the  College  in  1919-20 
as  to  their  homes : 
Collegiate — 

From  New  Mexico,  outside  of  Las  Cruces  and  Mesilla 

Park  1 83 

From  outside  of  New  Mexico 35 

From  Las  Cruces  and  Mesilla  Park 21 

Post-graduate,  all  from  outside  of  New  Mexico 4 

Preparatory— 

From  New  Mexico,  outside  of  Las  Crudes  and  Mesilla 

Park  123 

From  outside  of  New  Mexico 20 

From  Las  Cruces  and  Mesilla  Park ..  21 


36  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

Short  Courses. 
In  Agriculture — 

From  New  Mexico,  outside  of  Las  Graces  and  Mesilla 

Park  30 

From  outside  of  New  Mexico l£ 

From  Las  Graces  and  Mesilla  Park 3 

In  Automobile  Mechanics — 

From  New  Mexico,  outside  of  Las  Cruces  and  Mesilla 

Park  54 

From  outside  of  New  Mexico 28 

From  Las  Graces  and  Mesilla  Park 7 

In  Commerce — 

From  New  Mexico,  outside  of  Las  Cruces  and  Mesilla 

Park 46 

From  outside  of  New  Mexico 6 

From  Las  Cruces  and  Mesilla  Park 16 

Total  enrollment  509 

Note. — Two  short  courses  are  given  in  automobile  me- 
chanics and  two  in  commerce ;  one  course,  in  each  case,  requir- 
ing one  year  for  completion ;  the  other,  two  years.  Students  in 
the  short  course  in  agriculture  have  the  privilege  of  pursuing 
the  course  three  or  four  years,  if  they  desire  to  do  so. 

Eleven  of  the  commercial  students  were  high  school 
graduates. 

It  will  be  noted  that  a  goodly  proportion  of  the  students 
are  from  outside  of  New  Mexico,  and  the  question  of  an  in- 
creased tuition  fee  for  such  students  might  well  be  raised  here 
as  it  was  in  the  discussion  of  the  University  of  New  Mexico. 

The  generous  provision  of  short  courses  in  agriculture  and 
engineering  is  to  my  mind  most  commendable.  I  am,  however, 
somewhat  in  doubt  as  to  the  strict  legitimacy  of  utilizing  Mor- 
rill  funds  for  students  in  commercial  courses. 

The  instructors  at  Las  Cruces  have,  on  the  whole,  somewhat 
more  reasonable  teaching  programs  than  the  instructors  in  the 
two  normal  schools  and  the  School  of  Mines ;  but  the  average  is 
still  higher  than  the  standard  accrediting  agencies  recommend. 
Some  teachers,  too,  are  seriously  over-burdened  at  certain  sea- 
sons of  the  year.  One  instructor,  for  example,  carries  a  24- 
liour  program  in  the  second  term;  another,  25  hours  in  the 
second  term  and  22  in  the  first  term ;  and  there  is  one  case  in 
which  an  instructor  is  supposed  to  carry  30  hours  of  work  (12 
hours'  teaching  and  36  hours'  laboratory). 

An  inspection  of  the  class  registration  data  for  1919-20 
shows  a  large  number  of  courses  with  very  small  enrollment. 
Out  of  349  courses  offered  in  1919-20, 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  37 

21  courses  enrolled  1  student     each 

17  courses  enrolled  2  students  each 
15  courses  enrolled  3  students  each 

18  courses  enrolled  4  students  each 

In  all,  then,  seventy-one  courses  (20.3%)  had  each  an  en- 
rollment of  fewer  than  five  students.  Relatively  small  regis- 
trations were  particularly  characteristic  of  the  collegiate 
courses  in  engineering. 

E.  THE  NEW  MEXICO  MILITARY  INSTITUTE. 

I  did  not  visit  this  institution.  From  an  examination  of  its 
catalogue  and  from  conferences  with  those  who  know  this  in- 
stitution, I  am  convinced  that  it  is  a  military  school  of  the  best 
type  and  of  the  highest  rating,  offering  chiefly  college-prepara- 
tory courses  with  some  effort  toward  the  development  of  junior 
college  work. 

It  is  my  understanding  that  the  Military  Institute  has  a 
special  land-grant  which  could  not  be  diverted  to  other  pur- 
poses, and  that  it  is  already  largely  self-supporting  through  the 
tuition  fees  of  students  from  without  the  state.  If  the  revenues 
from  both  these  sources  could  make  it  entirely  self-supporting, 
the  problem  would  be  materially  simplified.  In  the  sections 
that  follow,  I  shall  assume  that  the  tax  burden  represented  by 
the  maintenance  of  this  institution  will  either  be  eliminated  or 
reduced  to  a  negligible  minimum. 

IV.  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REORGANIZATION  LOOKING 

TOWARD  ECONOMY  AND  INCREASED 

EFFICIENCY. 

It  is  clear  even  to  the  casual  observer  that  New  Mexico  is 
attempting  to  operate  a  larger  number  of  separate  tax-sup- 
ported higher  institutions  than  the  needs  of  the  state  warrant, 
and  a  larger  number  of  such  institutions  than  the  taxpayers  of 
the  state  are  now  either  willing  or  able  to  provide  for  in  a 
manner  that  would  be  consistent  with  the  importance  of  the 
service  that  the  various  institutions  should  render.  I  believe 
that  the  truth  and  justice  of  the  following  statements  cannot 
be  reasonably  controverted. 

1.  The  Spanish- American  Normal  School  at  El  Rito  should 
no  longer  be  a  burden  .either  upon  the  taxable  wealth  of  the 
state  or  upon  any  revenues  derived  from  Federal  land  grants. 

2.  The  maintenance  of  the  Military  Institute  should  not 
be  a  charge  upon  the  taxable  wealth  of  the  state. 

3.  The  relatively  small  number  of  students  of  collegiate 
grade  in  the  several  institutions  is  proof  conclusive  that  the 


38  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

state  should  not  attempt  to  support  five  separate  degree-grant- 
ing institutions.  At  the  time  of  my  visits  the  aggregate  colle- 
giate enrollment  in  the  five  institutions  was  510 ;  of  these  nearly 
200  were  from  outside  the  state,  leaving  approximately  300  as 
the  total  of  New  Mexico  students  on  the  collegiate  level. 

4.  The  service  that  the  School  of  Mines  is  rendering  to 
the  state  as  measured  both  by  the  number  of  New  Mexico  stu- 
dents enrolled  in  its  courses  and  by  the  proportion  of  its  gradu- 
ates who  are  developing  the  mineral  resources  of  the  state  does 
not  seem  to  justify  the  expenditures  that  its  maintenance  now 
involves.     To  continue  the  school  as  a  separate  organization 
would  seem  to  be  most  unwise.    At  the  same  time  the  large  pos- 
sibilities inherent  in  the  mineral  wealth  of  New  Mexico  would 
speak  strongly  against  any  proposal  to  abandon  mining  educa- 
tion as  an  important  phase  of  the  state's  educational  efforts. 

5.  The  large  proportion  of  very  small  classes  in  the  col- 
legiate engineering  courses  of  the  New  Mexico  College  of  Ag- 
riculture and  Mechanic  Arts  raises  at  once  the  question  whether 
the  work  in  engineering  endowed  by  the  Federal  government 
under  the  Morrill  and  related  acts  could  not  more  profitably 
be  incorporated  with  the  engineering  courses  now  offered  at 
the  University  of  New  Mexico  which  is  located  much  more  fav- 
orably for  the  development  of  such  work. 

6.  The  State  Normal  School  at  Silver  City  is  seriously 
handicapped  by  its  location  in  rendering  the  service  that  it 
should  to  the  State. 

7.  The  salary  schedules  in  all  of  the  state  institutions  are 
far  too  low  to  secure  and  retain  men  and  women  of  the  ability 
demanded  in  the  important  work  which  the  institutions  are 
called  upon  to  do. 

8.  The  teaching  programs  in  all  of  the  institutions  with 
the  possible  exception  of  the  University  are  far  heavier  than  is 
permitted  by  the  standards  now  generally  agreed  upon  by  au- 
thorities in  higher  education. 

9.  While  the  normal  schools  at  Las  Vegas  and  Silver  City 
are,  in  the  main,  concentrating  their  energies  with  commend- 
able earnestness  upon  the  problem  of  preparing  teachers  for 
the  public  schools,  this  most  important  of  all  possible  functions 
of  the  state's  higher  institutions  is  not  being  discharged  with 
the  measure  of  success  that  the  state  should  demand.     This  is 
due  in  part  to  the  limited  resources  of  the  schools,  and  these 
limited  resources  are  in  part  due  to  tfre  rival  claims  of  other 
institutions. 

10.  The  higher  institutions  of  New  Mexico  are  wasteful 
in  part  because  they  lack  a  unified  administration.    This  lack 
permits  local  interests  to  thwart,  often  quite  innocently,  the 
broader  interests  of  the  state  as  a  whole ;  it  encourages  needless 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  39 

duplications;  it  stimulates  an  unhealthy  rivalry;  it  stands 
squarely  in  the  path  of  both  economy  and  efficiency.  This  is  not 
to  say  that  the  local  communities  in  which  the  separate  institu- 
tions are  located  either  willfully  or  maliciously  betray  the 
state's  interests;  nor  is  it  to  minimize  the  fine  loyalty  which 
most  if  not  all  of  the  local  communities  have  shown  to  the 
schools  located  in  their  midst ;  it  is  simply  to  recognize  a  basic 
fact  of  human  nature — namely,  the  tendency  of  any  community 
to  put  forth  every  effort  to  bring  to  itself  as  large  a  volume  of 
business  as  it  can.  To  expect  from  any  community  a  thoroughly 
detached  and  a  dispassionate  consideration  of  the  state's  wider 
interests,  especially  when  such  interests  may  conflict  with  local 
interests,  is  to  expect  the  impossible. 

I  am  aware  that  all  of  the  institutions  under  considera- 
tion have  been  located  by  constitutional  provisions,  and  that 
any  marked  efforts  toward  reorganization  must  be  based  upon 
the  possibility  of  securing  certain  amendments  to  the  basic  law. 
I  shall  assume  in  the  following  discussion  that  the  people  of 
New  Mexico  as  a  whole  wish  above  all  else  to  provide  for  the 
children  of  the  state  educational  opportunities  as  generous  and 
as  efficient  as  their  means  will  permit,  and  that,  if  they  are 
clearly  convinced  of  the  need  of  constitutional  amendments  as  a 
means  to  this  all-important  end,  such  amendments  will  be  forth- 
coming. ' 

I  may  also  be  permitted  at  this  point  to  say  that  I  am  view- 
ing the  educational  problem  of  New  Mexico  objectively.  I  have 
no  personal  interest  in  any  locality,  in  any  section,  in  any  in- 
stitution or  group  of  institutions  within  the  state.  I  have  no 
personal  obligations  to  discharge  to  any  individual  or  group  of 
individuals.  I  have  assumed  that  the  Special  Revenue  Com- 
mission which  employed  my  services  wrished  my  unbiased  judg- 
ment, whether  or  not  it  agreed  with  its  judgment.  Under  no 
other  conditions,  of  course,  are  my  services  in  the  market.  In 
all  fairness,  however,  I  should  add  that,  while  I  have  no  per- 
sonal interest  or  obligations.  I  do  have  a  pronounced  profes- 
sional interest  in  the  problem.  If  my  judgment  is  to  be  dis- 
counted in  any  way,  it  should  be  on  the  basis  of  my  firm  con- 
viction that  the  most  fundamental  of  all  educational  problems 
in  any  state  is  the  provision  of  competent  teachers  for  the  low- 
er schools.  It  is  here  that  any  suggestions  that  I  make  are  most 
likely  to  diverge  from  those  of  other  persons  judging  the  situa- 
tion from  the  outside. 

If  it  be  agreed  that  state  support  for  the  El  Rito  and  Ros- 
well  institutions  should  be  discontinued,  the  next  question  has 
to  do  with  the  possibility  of  consolidating  all  or  some  of  the 
five  remaining  schools. 

The  clearest  case  is  that  of  the  School  of  Mines.     As  has 


40  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

been  said,  the  importance  of  New  Mexico's  mining  interests 
implies  an  important  place  in  the  state's  system  of  higher  edu- 
cation for  the  work  that  this  school  represents.  Substantial 
economies,  however,  could  be  effected  by  transferring  the  pro- 
fessional courses  now  offered  at  Socorro  either  to  the  Univers- 
ity at  Albuquerque  or  to  the  State  College  at  Las  Cruces,  First, 
such  a  transfer  would  save  a  considerable  expense  on  the  side 
of  upkeep  of  plant  and  administrative  overhead  charges;  sec- 
ondly, the  duplication  of  general  courses  in  mathematics  and 
the  physical  sciences  could  be  avoided;  thirdly,  duplication  in 
certain  professional  courses,  notably  in  civil  engineering,  could 
be  done  away  with,  at  least  in  part.  The  saving  to  the  state 
could  easily  amount  to  $25,000  a  year,  probably  more.  It  is 
possible  that  neither  Las  Cruces  nor  Albuquerque  offers  quite 
so  good  a  location  for  a  mining  school  as  does  Socorro.  I  am 
not  competent  to  speak  with  any  measure  of  authority  on  this 
matter,  but  it  is  my  impression  that  substantial  work  in  mining 
engineering  could  be  done  at  Albuquerque  and  possibly  at  Las 
Cruces  almost  if  not  q'uite  as  well  as  at  Socorro.  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  the  plant  at  Socorro  could  be  abandoned  with  a 
minimum  of  disadvantage. 

The  possibilities  of  combining  the  normal  schools  now  lo- 
cated at  Las  Vegas  and  Silver  City  are  less  convincing  unless  a 
single  strong  teachers'  college  were  to  be  located  at  Albuquer- 
que which  is  the  only  city  in  the  state  large  enough  to  supply 
training  school  facilities  for  the  recruits  which  the  public 
school  will  need  if  the  certification  of  teachers  is  placed  upon 
an  adequate  institutional  basis.  If  such  a  combination  were 
impracticable,  there  would  still  remain  the  possibility  of  mov- 
ing the  Silver  City  school  to  a  point  more  readily  accessible. 
Perhaps  the  plant  at  Silver  City  could  be  used  for  another 
state  institution  in  connection  with  which  the  question  of  ac- 
cessibility is  not  so  significant  as  it  is  in  the  location  of  a  teach- 
er training  institution. 

The  economies  that  would  be  effected  in  the  consolidation 
of  the  normal  schools  merit  consideration  at  this  point.  A  cer- 
tain amount  could  be  saved  in  the  upkeep  of  the  plant,  although 
this  amount  would  be  relatively  smaller  than  in  the  transfer  of 
the  School  of  Mines  to  Albuquerque  or  Las  Cruces,  for  the  num- 
ber of  students  to  be  provided  for  is  larger  in  teacher  training 
courses  than  in  mining  courses.  Administrative  overhead 
would  be  substantially  reduced.  The  saving  from  eliminating 
duplications  would  be  worth  considering.  A  teachers'  college, 
wherever  located,  should  have  its  own  staff,  but  there  are  pos- 
sibilities of  giving  certain  courses  to  groups  representing  dif- 
ferent vocational  aims  and  thus  effecting  appreciable 
economies. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  41 

The  transfer  of  the  engineering  courses  from  Las  Cruces 
to  Albuquerque  has  already  been  suggested.  This  would  be  a 
step  in  the  direction  of  efficiency  as  well  as  economy,  for  Albu- 
querque is  more  centrally  located  and  much  more  clearly  repre- 
sentative of  industrial  enterprises  than  is  Las  Cruces.  The 
saving  here  would  come  primarily  in  eliminating  duplications. 
It  should  go  without  saying  that,  if  this  transfer  is  made,  the 
School  of  Mines  should  also  be  incorporated  in  the  University. 
Probably  the  best  plan  would  be  to  develop  a  College  of  Engi- 
neering with  special  departments  of  civil,  mining,  chemical, 
electrical,  and  mechanical  engineering. 

One  further  possibility  remains :  namely,  the  incorporation 
of  the  College  of  Agriculture  with. the  University  at  Albuquer- 
que. Of  all  the  possibilities,  this  presents  the  most  serious  dif- 
ficulties as  well  as  some  that  are  not  so  serious  as  they  may 
appear  at  first  glance.  Of  the  latter,  there  is  one  that  should 
be  rather  briefly  referred  to.  I  was  told  by  certain  persons  in 
New  Mexico  that  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts 
was  a  national  and  not  a  state  institution,  and  consequently 
that  it  could  not  be  removed  without  national  consent.  This, 
of  course,  is  not  true.  The  land  grants  for  the  colleges  of 
agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  were  grants  to  the  states  and 
not  to  institutions  within  the  states.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
continuing  money  grants  under  the  Nelson,  Adams,  and  Smith- 
Lever  acts.  It  is  my  opinion  that  the  state  can  legitimately 
remove  its  College  of  Agriculture  from  its  present  location  to 
any  place  within  the  state  that  it  may  choose,  and  divert  to  the 
college  in  its  new  location  the  Federal  funds  that  are  now 
allotted  to  the  institution  in  its  present  location.  The  College 
of  Agriculture  is  a  federally-aided  institution;  it  is  in  no  es- 
sential respect  even  a  federally-supervised,  far  less  a  feder- 
ally-controlled institution. 

The  most  important  difficulty  in  the  way  of  incorporating 
the  College  of  Agriculture  with  the  University  at  Albuquerque 
lies  in  the  disadvantage  of  giving  up  the  farms,  gardens,  and 
orchards  that  have  been  developed  at  a  large  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  at  Las  Cruces,  and  the  duplication  of  which 
anywhere  else  would  be  both  expensive  and  time-consuming. 
The  present  site  of  the  University  at  Albuquerque  is  not  well 
adapted  naturally  to  the  location  of  a  College  of  Agriculture. 
There  is  an  abundance  of  unoccupied  land  directly  contiguous 
to  the  campus,  but  this  land  is  now  unwatered.  To  water  it 
from  wells  would  be  expensive  but  it  might  be  practicable. 
There  is  also  a  possibility  of  diverting  a  mountain  stream  for 
irrigating  purposes.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  these 
possibilities  should  be  thoroughly  canvassed  before  any  definite 
policy  is  proposed. 


42  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

If  the  College  of  Agriculture  were  to  be  removed  to  Albu- 
querque, it  would  still  be  necessary,  I  believe,  to  retain  the 
college  farm  at  Las  Cruces  as  an  experiment  station.  It  is  my 
understanding  that  the  station  now  is  the  only  one  in  the 
country  that  is  undertaking  investigations  in  this  special  type 
of  environment. 

The  savings  that  might  be  effected  by  incorporating  the 
College  of  Agriculture  with  the  University  in  connection  with 
upkeep,  overhead,  and  economy  of  instruction  are  probably 
larger  than  any  that  the  other  possibilities  discussed  would  in- 
volve. They  would  be  offset  in  part,  of  course,  and  perhaps 
entirely  by  the  interest  on  the  permanent  investment  involved 
in  the  development  of  a  college  farm  and  the  erection  of  new 
buildings  at  the  University.  Without  a  careful  inventory  and 
tabulation  which  I  have  not  had  time  to  make  it  is  impossible 
for  me  to  do  more  than  very  roughly  to  estimate  either  the 
savings  or  the  added  costs.  The  plant  at  Las  Cruces  was  val- 
ued in  1917  at  $380,640.67.  Assuming  that  the  provision  of  an 
equally  good  plant  at  Albuquerque  would  cost  at  least  as  much, 
we  have  at  once  an  investment  of  $380,000  to  consider.  Bonds 
in  this  amount  would  involve  an  interest  charge  of  nearly 
$23,000  annually.  This  does  not  include  the  provision  of  a 
sinking  fund  that  will  eventually  liquidate  the  indebtedness. 
Assuming  that  the  bonds  would  be  retired  in  twenty  years, 
the  total  annual  expense  to  the  State  during  this  period  would 
be  $42,000.  At  this  annual  cost  the  State  would  have  within 
two  decades  its  new  institution  developed  and  paid  for.  Would 
the  consolidation  effect  a  sufficient  saving  to  make  it  a  good 
" business  proposition"  irrespective  of  any  possible  educational 
benefits  derived?  In  1917,  the  College  of  Agriculture  cost  the 
taxpayers  of  the  State  $61,243.23  (New  Mexico  Tax  Review, 
January,  1917,  p.  5).  To  save  even  one-third  of  this  through 
consolidation  without  letting  the  work  deteriorate  would  seem 
to  be  a  very  dubious  possibility.  Even  if  we  left  the  sinking 
fund  out  of  account,  I  have  serious  doubts  as  to  the  actual 
money-economy  of  the  proposal  in  question. 

There  are,  however,  factors  which  the  above  rough  calcula- 
tion does  not  sufficiently  consider.  It  may  be  that,  if  an  ex- 
periment station  were  retained  at  Las  Cruces,  the  investment 
in  a  new  plant  at  Albuquerque  would  not  need  to  be  so  heavy. 
In  fact,  it  is  conceivable  that  farms  and  farmbuildings  that 
would  IDC  sufficient  for  instructional  purposes  could  be  pro- 
vided at  a  much  lower  cost  than  would  be  the  case  were  ex- 
tensive experiments  to  be  provided  for.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  the  experiment  station  were  retained  at  Las  Cruces,  there 
would  be  a  certain  measure  of  duplication  of  staff  at  the  col- 
lege and  the  station,  and  there  would  be  in  addition  an  educa- 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  43 


tional  disadvantage  in  not  having  the  instruction  linked  very 
closely  as  it  now  is  with  the  experimental  investigations. 

Another  factor,  too,  needs  consideration.  It  is  possible 
that  the  citizens  of  Albuquerque  might  be  willing  to  furnish 
funds  that  would  greatly  lessen  the  investment  that  the  State 
would  otherwise  need  to  make  in  a  duplication  of  the  agricul- 
tural college  plant.  I  am  frank  to  say  that  an  arrangement  of 
this  sort  impresses  me  unfavorably,  for  if  a  community  "buys" 
an  interest  in  a  state  institution,  it  is  likely  to  remember  the 
fact  whenever  the  policies  of  the  institution  happen  not  to  meet 
local  approval.  The  arrangement  is  commonly  made  in  the 
location  and  re-location  of  state  institutions  throughout  the 
country,  however,  and  the  objection  may  not  be  so  serious  as 
I  have  assumed. 

Passing  from  the  question  of  money-economy  to  that  of 
educational  economy,  I  believe  that  the  case  for  consolidation 
is  much  more  convincing.  Albuquerque  is  more  centrally  lo- 
cated than  Las  Cruces,  and  its  railroad  connections  are  far 
better.  It  is  the  center  of  an  agricultural  district  that  seems 
to  be  somewhat  more  closely  typical  of  most  of  the  State's 
agriculture  than  is  Las  Cruces,  although  as  I  have  pointed  out, 
the  region  about  Las  Cruces  represents  certain  types  of  agri- 
cultural development  that  are  very  important  and  that  are  not 
nearly  so  well  reflected  in  the  country  around  Albuquerque. 

A  question  of  large  importance  with  reference  to  the 
educational  effects  of  consolidation  is  this :  Will  the  other  de- 
partments of  the  University  tend  in  any  way  to  overshadow  or 
relegate  to  a  subordinate  position  the  work  of  an  agricultural 
college?  To  this  question,  I  belive,  a  strong  negative  answer 
can  safely  be  made.  When  the  agricultural  colleges  were  in 
their  infancy,  it  is  true,  the  separate  institutions  made  more 
progress  and  enrolled  more  students  in  strictly  agricultural 
courses  than  did  the  institutions  connected  with  universities. 
This  was  clearly  the  case  in  Michigan,  where  the  college  was 
(and  is)  a  separate  institution,  as  contrasted  with  Wisconsin 
where  the  college  was  from  the  outset  a  part  of  the  State  Uni- 
versity ;  it  was  similarly  true  of  Iowa  as  compared  with  Illinois, 
and  of  Kansas  as  compared  with  Nebraska.  During  the  past 
thirty  years,  however,  this  tendency  of  the  other  departments 
of  a  University  to  overshadow  the  agricultural  college  has  been 
fully  counteracted  and  in  some  cases  quite  reversed.  In  Illinois, 
Wisconsin,  and  Nebraska  today,  the  colleges  of  agriculture  are 
among  the  most  largely  attended  colleges  of  the  University,  and 
the  colleges  of  agriculture  in  these  institutions  do  not  in  any 
way  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  still  separate  institutions  of 
Michigan,  Iowa,  and  Kansas.  Under  present  conditions,  indeed, 
I  believe  that  the  case  for  university  colleges  of  agriculture  is 


44  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

much  stronger  than  is  that  for  separate  colleges.  The  assemb- 
ling of  students  with  different  vocational  aims  in  the  same  uni- 
versity center  is  an  advantage  both  to  the  student  and  to  the 
state.  Apart  from  all  economies  in  administration,  upkeep,  and 
the  elimination  of  duplications,  the  educational  advantages  are* 
I  believe,  incontestably  on  the  side  of  concentration.  The  most 
significant  danger  lies  in  the  possible  swamping  of  the  profes- 
sional spirit  of  the  several  colleges  constituting  the  University 
by  the  more  pervasive  spirit  of  the  institution  as  a  whole.  With 
separate  faculties  and  in  some  measure  separate  buildings,  how- 
ever, the  integrity  of  each  component  technical  or  professional 
college  can  be  conserved  and  the  same  time  a  too  narrow  pro- 
fessionalism will  be  precluded. 

Another  question  of  long  standing  now  presents  itself.  In 
a  large  state  is  it  not  better  to  have  two  or  three  higher  insti- 
tutions in  different  locations  than  a  single  central  institution? 
Those  who  answer  this  question  in  the  affirmative  lay  large  em- 
phasis upon  the  fact  that,  throughout  the  country,  the.  colleges 
almost  without  exception  draw  a  majority  of  their  students 
from  within  a  radius  of  one  hundred  miles.  They  also  point  to 
the  well-established  fact  that  the  opening  of  a  new  institution 
very  seldom  causes  a  decline  in  the  enrollment  of  existing  in- 
stitutions. A  third  argument  is  the  danger  of  excessively  large 
numbers  of  students  in  single  institutions  and  the  consequent 
lack  of  personal  oversight  and  individual  attention.  The  claim 
that  the  state's  funds  should  be  distributed  for  the  pecuniary 
benefit  of  as  many  communities  as  possible  is  obviously  spe- 
cious although  it  is  openly  defended  by  some. 

Those  who  favor  centralization  commonly  urge  that  a  state 
that  distributes  its  available  funds  and  its  energies  among  sev- 
eral institutions  is  unable  to  provide  in  any  one  of  these  insti- 
tutions educational  opportunities  as  good  as  would  be  those 
that  could  be  provided  in  a  single  centralized  institution.  The 
advantages  of  a  commingling  of  students  of  different  vocational 
interests  is  another  argument  in  favor  of  the  central  institu- 
tion. Economy  in  administration  and  upkeep  and  the  greater 
ease  of  unifying  all  of  the  interests  involved  are  also  put  for- 
ward in  defense  of  the  centralized  policy. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  this  question  can  be  answered  only 
in  the  light  of  conditions  within  each  state.  If  New  Mexico 
had  a  population  of  a  million  or  more  people  I  should  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  it  should  have  more  than  one  state  institution 
of  collegiate  grade.  Even  under  present  conditions,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  it  should  have  more  than  one.  I  do  not  believe  that 
it  should  have  five  as  it  now  has ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  it  should 
support  even  two  or  three  unless  it  is  willing  to  put  into  them  at 
least  as  much  money  as  it  is  now  expending  on  five. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  45 

As  I  view  the  situation,  there  are  three  possible  courses  of 
action,  any  one  of  which  will  do  something  to  make  the  higher 
institutions  yield  a  larger  return  upon  the  present  investment 
than  they  yield  today.  I  shall  state  as  objectively  as  I  can  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages  of  each  of  these  possibilities : 

1.  The  consolidation  of  all  of  the  higher  institutions  at  Al- 
buquerq<ue  under  the  general  designation,  The  University  of 
New  Mexico. 

This  would  mean  the  disposal  of  the  plants  at  Las  Vegas 
and  Silver  City,  or  it  might  be,  the  use  of  these  plants  for  other 
slate  institutions.  It  would  mean  either  the  abandonment  of 
the  plant  at  Las  Cruces  or  the  use  of  this  plant  as  an  experi- 
ment station  or  (in  addition  to  the>  experiment  station)  the  use 
of  the  buildings  for  a  state  secondary  school  of  agriculture  and 
mechanic  arts  under  the  Federal  subsidies  provided  by  the 
Smilh-Hughes  act.  It  would  mean  the  abandonment  of  the  plant 
at  Socorro. 

At  Albuquerque,  it  would  mean  the  further  development1 
of  the  following  colleges : 

(a)  The  liberal  arts  college,  now  located  there. 

(b)  A  central  State  Teachers'  College,  to  take  the  place 
of  the  present  normal  schools  and  to  do  in  addition  the  work 
of  preparing  teachers  now  undertaken  with  inadequate  equip- 
ment by -the  liberal  arts  college  of  the  University  and  the  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture.    This  teachers'  college  should  offer  at  the 
outset  well-organized  curricula  on  the  high  school  level  for  the 
preparation  of  rural  school  teachers,  with  the  understanding 
that  these  low-grade  curricula  are  to  be  replaced  within  a  stat- 
ed number  of  years  by  curricula  for  the  same  purpose  on  the 
collegiate  level.    It  should  also  offer  two-year  curricula  on  the 
collegiate  level  for  the  preparation  of  elementary  school  teach- 
ers with  the  understanding  that  these  are  to  be  expanded  into 
three-year  and  four-year  programs.     It  should  offer  four-year 
collegiate  curricula  for  the  preparation  of  high  school  teachers 
and  for  the  preparation  of  special  teachers  and  supervisors  of 
music,  household  arts,  agriculture,  commercial  subjects,  and  in- 
dustrial arts.    It  should  plan  later  .to  provide  graduate  courses 
for  school  administrators  and  supervisors.     It  should  continue 
the  good  work  that  has  for  years  been  accomplished  by  the 
normal  schools  through    their    summer    sessions.     In  no  case 
should  a  teachers'  college  be  located  at  Albuquerque  or  else- 
where unless  as  many  of  the  public  schools  of  the  city  as  are 
necessary  can  be  used  under  reasonable  regulations  for  train- 
ing-school purposes  and  unless  at  least  four  rural  schools  within 
fifteen  miles  can  be  secured  as  rural  training-  centers. 

(c)  A  State  College  of  Agriculture.     This  college  should 
offer  four-year  curricula  of  collegiate  grade  in  general   agri- 


46  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

culture,  in  household  arts,  in  horticulture,  in  animal  husbandry. 
It  should  co-operate  with  the  College  of  Engineering  in  offer- 
ing a  curriculum  for  irrigation  engineers,  and  with  the  Teach- 
ers' College  in  the  courses  for  the  preparation  of  rural  school 
teachers  and  of  teachers  of  household  arts  and  agriculture  in* 
the  high  schools.  It  should  continue  the  work  now  offered  at 
Las  Cruces  in  secondary  agriculture,  household  arts,  and  farm 
mechanics,  at  least  until  these  branches  are  adequately  pro- 
vided for  in  local  high  schools  under  the  provisions  of  the 
Smith-Hughes  act. 

(d)  A  State  College  of  Engineering.     This  should  com- 
prise collegiate  departments  of  civil  engineering,  mining  en- 
gineering, chemical    engineering,    electrical    engineering,  and 
mechanical  engineering.  The  College  of  Engineering  should  co- 
operate with  the  College  of  Agriculture  in  offering  the  curri- 
culum for  irrigation  engineers  and  with  the  Teachers 'College  in 
the  courses  for  teachers  of  industrial  arts  in  high  schools.    It  is 
possible  that  it  should  also  conduct  secondary  courses  similar 
to  those  in  automobile  mechanics  now  offered  at  Las  Cruces 
until  this  work  has  gained  a  permanent  foothold  in  the  local 
high  schools. 

(e)  A  State  College  of  Commerce.    This  should  offer  one- 
year,  two-year,  and  four-year  curricula  of  collegiate  grade  in 
general  business  organization,  administration,  and  accountancy. 
The  College  of  Commerce    should    also  co-operate    with  the 
Teachers'  College  in  the  preparation  of  high  school  teachers  of 
commercial  subjects. 

(f )  Until  the  high  schools  of  the  state  are  more  fully  de- 
veloped, it  would  be  necessary  I  believe  to  have  at  the  Uni- 
versity a  State  Preparatory  School  limited,  if  possible,  to  pupils 
from  districts  that  do  not  as  yet  provide  high  school  facilities. 
This  preparatory  school  should  especially  aim  to  "feed"  the 
State  Teachers'  College  and  the  College  of  Agriculture. 

Outside  of  the  necessary  outlay  for  new  buildings,  the  or- 
ganization that  I  have  suggested  could,  I  am  sure,  be  financed 
at  the  outset  at  a  total  expense  substantially  below  that  now 
provided  annually  for  the  seven  existing  schools.  All  of  the 
land-grant  and  Federal  funds  now  accruing  to  the  several  in- 
stitutions would  accrue  to  the  central  institution  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Federal  subsidies  for  the  experiment  station  in 
the  event  that  this  were  left  at  Las  Cruces.  The  Teachers'  Col- 
lege could  be  operated  for  two  or  three  years  on  a  budget  some- 
what below  the  present  combined  budgets  of  the  three  normal 
schools;  later,  of  course,  the  budget  of  the  Teachers'  College 
would  have  to  be  increased  considerably  if  the  plan  suggested 
above  for  the  training  of  public  school  teachers  were  to  be  car- 
ried out.  It  is  probable  that  the  Federal  Government  by  that 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  47 

time  will  have  adopted  some  plan  of  co-operating  with  the 
states  in  the  support  of  teacher  training  agencies. 

In  suggesting  that  the  annual  cost  of  operating  a  single 
institution  would  be  for  some  time  appreciably  less  than  the 
present  cost  of  operating  seven  institutions,  I  am  pre-suppos- 
ing  that  the  quality  of  instruction  will  not  only  not  be  lower 
than  it  is  now,  but  that  it  will  be  considerably  advanced.  I  am 
pre-supposing,  too,  that  salaries  will  be  higher  and  teaching 
programs  somewhat  lighter.  The  saving  will  be  effected  most 
largely  by  doing  away  with  small  classes  and  needless  duplica- 
tions thus  permitting  the  same  amount  of  work  to  be  done  by  a 
much  smaller  staff  than  the  combined  faculties  of  the  seven  in- 
stitutions now  represent.  Administrative  overhead  would  not 
be  reduced  in  the  same  proportions,  for  each  college  must  have 
its  dean  and  the  deans  should  receive  not  less  than  the  presi- 
dents of  the  existing  institutions.  Clerical  overhead,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  be  substantially  reduced,  while  operating 
expenses  in  connection  with  supplies,  fuel,  and  library  should 
also  show  a  considerable  reduction. 

The  estimated  lower  cost  of  the  single  institution,  it  should 
again  be  noted,  does  not  take  into  account  the  interest  on  the 
investment  that  would  be  involved  in  extending  the  plant  at 
Albuquerque  to  accommodate  the  new  institutions. 

Any  form  of  centralization,  of  course,  would  mean  doing 
away  with  the  present  governing  boards  of  the  several  insti- 
tutions and  the  organization  of  a  new  single  board.  Whether 
consolidation  is  effected  or  not,  the  advantages  of  a  unit  board 
for  the  higher  institutions  as  against  multiple  boards  merit 
serious  consideration.  In  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  every  state 
that  has  in  any  significant  manner  reorganized  its  higher  insti- 
tutions during  the  past  two  decades  has  adopted  the  single- 
board  policy.  My  own  belief  is  that  such  a  board  should  be 
made  up  of  seven  or  nine  persons  each  of  whom  will  serve  for 
a  term  of  five  years.  Students  of  the  problem  are  not  in  thor- 
ough agreement  as  to  whether  such  a  board  sholild  be  appointed 
by  the  governor  of  the  state  or  elected  at  large  by  the  people. 
The  elected  board,  in  my  opinion,  is  to  be  preferred,  chiefly  on 
account  of  its  direct  responsibility  to  the  people.  From  my  own 
observations  and  from  my  experience  in  working  under  various 
forms  of  state  educational  administration,  I  am  fairly  well  con- 
vinced that  the  more  unfortunate  types  of  political  influence 
do  not  affect  small  boards  elected  at  large  in  the  measure  that 
such  influences  affect  appointive  boards. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  boards  of  control  for  higher  edu- 
cational institutions  should  be  made  up  of  laymen  rather  than 
of  persons  engaged  professionally  in  the  work  of  education. 
There  should,  however,  be  advisory  boards  or  councils  repre- 


48  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

senting  the  professional  interests.  In  a  university  organization 
such  as  that  under  discussion,  it  would  be  advantageous  to  have 
an  advisory  council  for  each  of  the  professional  colleges.  These 
councils  could  then  co-operate  with  the  faculties  of  the  several 
colleges  and  with  the  general  senate  of  the  University  (made  up* 
of  the  full  professors  of  all  of  the  colleges)  in  the  construction 
of  educational  policies  which  would  then  be  submitted  to  the 
board  of  control  representing  all  of  the  people  for  adjustment 
where  different  interests  conflicted  and  for  final  approval  or 
rejection. 

As  I  have  said,  the  single-board  policy  should  in  my  judg- 
ment be  adopted  by  New  Mexico  whether  the  institutions  are 
to  be  united  or  whether  they  are  to  remain  in  separate  localities. 
Unity  in  administration  will  in  itself  do  much  to  promote  co- 
ordination and  prevent  a  wasteful  competition  among  the  sev- 
eral institutions. 

I  have  discussed  hitherto  only  the  possibility  of  promoting 
economy  and  efficiency  through  a  consolidation  of  the  degree- 
granting  institutions  in  an  enlarged  University  of  New  Mexico 
to  be  built  up  around  the  present  University  at  Albuquerque. 
It  would  be  possible,  of  course,  to  choose  some  place  other  than 
Albuquerque  for  the  consolidated  institution.  In  view  of  the 
expense  that  would  be  involved  in  moving  the  College  of  Agri- 
culture to  Albuquerque,  the  location  of  all  of  the  colleges  at 
Las  Cruces  suggests  itself  at  once  as  an  alternative.  The  diffi- 
culty in  this  solution  of  the  problem  lies  in  the  fact  that  Las 
Cruces  is  a  relatively  small  city,  and,  while  well  located  to  serve 
the  southern  portion  of  the  state,  is  much  more  remote  from  the 
other  sections  than  is  Albuquerque,  which,  in  its  turn,  is  rea- 
sonably accessible  from  the  South.  The  size  of  a  city  and  the 
nature  of  its  industries  we  have  already  found  to  be  vital  fac- 
tors to  be  considered  in  locating  two  of  the  important  colleges 
—the  Teachers'  College  and  the  College  of  Engineering.  In  so 
far  as  I  can  see,  there  is  no  other  town  or  city  in  the  state  that 
offers  for  the  location  of  the  proposed  institution  advantages 
comparable  with  those  that  Albuquerque  affords. 

2.  A  second  solution  of  the  problem  is  to  unite  all  of  the 
institutions  except  the  normal  schools  in  a  single  State  Univer- 
sity and  to  unite  the  three  normal  schools  in  a  single  teacher 
training  institution. 

If  the  present  normal  schools  were  replaced  by  a  single 
school,  the  new  institution,  in  my  opinion,  would  have  to  be  lo- 
cated at  Albuquerque  as  the  only  city  in  the  state  large  enough 
to  provide  training  school  facilities.  If  this  were  done  and  if 
the  new  University  wore  also  located  at  Albuquerque,  there 
would  be  two  separate  state  institutions  next  door  to  one  an- 
other in  the  same  city.  Obviously  if  the  two  are  located  in  the 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  49 

same  town,  they  could  very  profitably  be  united.  The  location 
of  a  separate  teachers'  college  at  Albuquerque,  however,  would 
remove  one  of  the  objections  to  uniting  the  other  colleges  in  a 
single  institution  at  Las  Cruces. 

On  the  whole,  I  should  speak  strongly  against  separating 
the  teacher  training  functions  so  sharply  from  the  other  phases 
of  higher  education.  In  practically  every  state  this  sharp  dis- 
tinction is  made  today  with  the  result  that  the  teacher  training 
agencies  occupy  a  very  subordinate  position.  They  are  not 
only  discriminated  against  in  the  matter  of  appropriations; 
their  subordinate  status  also  makes  them  less  attractive  to  the 
type  of  young  manhood  and  young  womanhood  that  the  state 
needs  in  its  public  school  service.  Thus  to  set  off  the  normal 
school  as  an  inferior  institution  and  to  give  it  the  lean  end  of 
public  support  is  not  alone  or  primarily  an  injustice  to  the  in- 
stitution, to  its  faculty,  or  to  its  students ;  beyond  all  this,  and 
vastly  more  significantly,  it  is  an  injustice  to  the  children  of 
he  state  who  deserve  the  best  teachers  that  can  be  attracted  to 
this  most  important  branch  of  the  public  service.  As  I  have 
said,  most  of  the  states  today  are  compounding  this  injustice  by 
nonchalantly  permitting  their  normal  schools  to  remain  in  an 
inferior  position.  If  a  state  has  the  opportunity  that  New  Mexi- 
co has  to  place  the  preparation  of  all  grades  of  public  school 
teachers  on  a  dignified  and  attractive  plane,  I  do  not  believe 
that  it  should  let  the  opportunity  slip  by. 

3.  There  is  a  third  possibility  which  will  obviate  the  diffi- 
culty that  I  have  just  referred  to.  In  the  event  that  a  consoli- 
dation of  all  institutions  should  prove  to  be  impracticable,  I 
suggest  a  reorganization  on  a  plan  analogous  in  many  ways  to 
that  adopted  within  the  past  decade  by  Montana,  but  with  some 
important  differences.  Montana  now  maintains  at  Missoula  a 
college  of  liberal  arts  and  a  college  of  law;  at  Butte,  a  school 
of  mines;  at  Dillon,  a  state  teachers'  college;  and  at  Bozeman, 
a  college  of  agriculture  and  a  college  of  engineering.  These 
colleges,  located  at  four  different  centers,  form  together  the 
University  of  Montana,  operating  under  a  single  administrative 
board  of  control  and  with  a  single  executive  head  known  as 
the  Chancellor  of  the  University. 

I  believe  that,  if  New  Mexico  could  not  see  its  way  clear 
to  a  single,  centrally-located  State  University,  it  could  at  least 
avail  itself  of  the  advantages  involved  in  the  Montana  plan  and 
even  make  some  important  improvements  upon  that  plan.  The 
organization  that  I  should  suggest  would  be,  in  essence,  a  Uni- 
versity of  New  Mexico,  commising'  the  colleges  and  secondary 
schools  that  I  have  already  described,  but  located  in  three  dif- 
ferent centers  as  follows: 

(a)     A  Northen  State  College,  located  at  Las  Vegas  or  at 


50  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

some  other  point  readily  accessible  from  the  northern  sections 
of  the  state.  If  located  at  Las  Vegas,  of  course,  the  present 
plant  of  the  Normal  University  could  be  utilized  as  a  nucleus 
for  whatever  buildings  might  be  needed.  The  only  work  o,f 
collegiate  grade  in  this  institution  for  some  time  at  least  would 
probably  be  that  involved  in  the  preparation  of  teachers.  The 
emphasis  here  would  be  primarily  upon  training  teachers  for 
the  rural  and  urban  elementary  service.  One-year  and  two-year 
curricula  would  be  developed  first,  but  these  should  later  be 
expanded  into  three-year  and  four-year  curricula.  Certain  types 
of  high  school  teachers  and  special  supervisors  might  also  be 
advantageously  prepared  here  through  four-year  curricula. 
Until  the  high  schools  of  the  state  are  well  developed,  this  in- 
stitution should  maintain  a  preparatory  department.  It  should, 
also,  in  my  opinion,  offer  vocational  programs  of  secondary 
grade  in  agriculture,  home  economics,  the  commercial  branches, 
and  industrial  arts.  With  the  co-operation  of  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment through  the  provisions  of  the  Smith-Hughes  Act,  the 
expense  of  such  courses  to  the  taxpayers  of  the  state  would  not 
be  excessive  and  a  real  service  would  be  rendered  to  the  young 
people  of  northern  New  Mexico.  Short  courses  in  agriculture 
and  home  economics  for  adults  could  also  be  developed  with 
small  expense  and  very  great  profit.  Perhaps,  with  the  co- 
operation of  the  Federal  government,  a  branch  experiment  sta- 
tion could  at  some  time  in  the  near  future  be  located  nearby. 
It  seems  to  me  that  such  a  station  is  needed  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  state. 

(b)  A  Central  State  College,  located  at  Albuquerque.  This 
would  comprise  the  present  college  of  liberal  arts  and  a  college 
of  engineering  made  up  of  the  present  departments  of  engineer- 
ing together  with  the  engineering  courses  transferred  from  Las 
Cruces  and  Socorro.    When  the  needs  and  resources  of  the  state 
should  warrant  additional  developments,  a  College  of  Law  and 
a  Central  State  Teachers'  College  might  well  be  added. 

(c)  A  Southern  State  College.    This  would  best  be  located 
at  Las  Cruces  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  plant  already 
developed.    It  would  comprise  on  the  collegiate  level  the  State 
College  of  Agriculture  and  a  State  Teachers'  College,  the  nu- 
cleus of  the  latter  to  be  the  departments  transferred  from  the 
present  State  Normal  School  at  Silver  City.     The  Teachers' 
College  should  provide  at  the  outset  one-year  and  two-year  pro- 
grams for  the  preparation  of  elementary  rural  school  and  urban 
school  teachers ;  later  these  should  be  expanded  into  three-year 
and  ultimately  into  four-year  programs.    In  co-operation  with 
the  College  of  Agriculture,  it  would  also  prepare,  through  four- 
year  programs,  high  school  teachers  of  the  sciences,  of  agricul- 
ture, and  of  home  economics. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTION^  51 

The  facilities  for  the  development  of  a  teachers'  college  at 
Las  Cruces  are  worth  serious  consideration.  The  public  schools 
of  Las  Cruces  are  representative  of  the  school  problems  of  a 
small  city;  Mesilla  Park  presents  the  problems  of  the  smaller 
American  community;  within  a  mile  is  a  native  village  repre- 
senting still  another  type  of  school  problem  important  in  New 
Mexico;  and  within  reasonable  distance  are  rural  schools  that 
could  well  serve  as  rural  training  centers.  The  advantages  of 
having  a  teachers'  college  in  close  affiliation  with  an  agricul- 
tural college  will  also  be  obvious.  The  rural  training  depart- 
ment of  the  former  will  be  in  a  position  to  work  in  close  co- 
operation with  the  county  agricultural  agents,  the  boys'  and 
girls'  club  work,  and  the  other  activities  enco'uraged  by  the 
Federal  government  through  the  States'  Relation  Service  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture. 

On  the  secondary  level,  the  Southern  State  College  should 
continue  the  vocational  courses  and  the  short  courses  now  of- 
fered by  the  College  of  Agriculture.  There  would  also  be  a 
place  for  some  years  to  come  for  a  preparatory  department 
leading  to  matriculation  in  the  Teachers'  College  or  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture. 

By  way  of  summary,  the  suggestions  for  this  possible  form 
of  reorganization  may  be  outlined  as  follows : 


52 


REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 


Secondary  Level 

g:  Preparatory  department 
of  Teachers'  College. 
Secondary  Vocational 
rade  courses:  industrial  arts, 
home  economics,  agri- 
culture, commerce. 
[ 

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)'  State  College  of  Engineering: 
Departments  of  Civil,  Mining,  Chemica 
trical,  and  Mechanical  Engineering. 

I  (Possibly)  State  College  of  Commerce. 
\  (Later)  State  College  of  Law;  Central  £ 
\  Teachers'  College. 

/State  College  of  Agriculture: 
/  Departments  of  General  Agricultural, 
Husbandry,  Horticulture,  Home  Eco 
\  etc. 

/Southern  State  Teachers'  College:  Prepa 
)  (a)  Rural  school  teachers. 

/(b)  Primary,  intermediate,  upper-grade 
I  junior-high-school  teachers. 

\  (c)  High  school  teachers  of  science,  : 
\  ture  and  home  economics. 

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EDUCATIONAL,  INSTITUTIONS  53 

The  immediate  economies  that  could  be  effected  by  the 
plan  just  described  would  be  somewhat  greater  than  the  im- 
mediate economies  involved  in  the  concentration  of  all  of  the 
higher  work  in  a  single  institution  at  Albuquerque.  This  would 
be  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  retention  of  three  of  the 
plants  would  do  away  with  the  necessity  for  the  large  invest- 
ment in  new  buildings,  farms,  etc.,  that  an  enlarged  single  in- 
stitution would  involve.  The  expenses  of  upkeep  and  overhead 
would  of  course  be  higher  than  for  a  single  institution.  It  is 
altogether  likely  that  a  single  institution  would  prove  more 
economical  in  the  end,  and  that  this  greater  economy  would 
ultimately  overbalance  the  larger  initial  investment  that  the 
unit  form  of  reorganization  would  involve.  This  question  I 
could  not  answer  without  making  a  very  close  study  of  the  ex- 
penses that  would  be  involved  in  the  development  of  an  agri- 
cultural college  plant  at  Albuquerque. 

If  this  three-institution  organization  of  the  University  of 
New  Mexico  were  to  be  adopted,  I  should  suggest  a  single 
board  such  as  that  proposed  for  the  single-institution  plan  dis- 
cussed above.  Each  institution  would  have  its  own  president 
and,  where  more  than  one  college  is  included,  a  dean  for  each 
college.  Montana's  plan  of  a  chancellor  to  serve  as  an  execu- 
tive for  all  of  the  institutions  may  be  essential  to  the  best  re- 
sults in  administration.  I  should  however,  suggest  as  a  possible 
alternative  the  appointment  of  an  executive  secretary  of  the 
governing  board  who  would  not  necessarily  rank  higher  than 
the  heads  of  the  three  colleges,  but  who  would  in  some  measure 
personify  the  unifying  functions  of  the  board. 

There  are  doubtless  combinations  that  are  possible  in  addi- 
tion to  the  three  that  I  have  discussed.  No  others  seem  to  me, 
however  to  merit  serious  consideration. 

In  conclusion  and  by  way  of  a  brief  summary  I  should  re- 
commend to  the  people  of  New  Mexico:  (1)  that  they  lay  the 
foundations  of  a  strong  and  pervasive  system  of  public  educa- 
tion by  making  the  primary  purpose  of  their  higher  institutions 
the  preparation  of  teachers  for  the  public  schools;  (2)  that 
they  encourage  the  development  of  high  schools  throughout  the 
state ;  (3)  that  they  emphasize  in  the  higher  institutions,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  preparation  of  teachers,  the  kinds  of  education 
upon  which  the  state  will  be  most  directly  dependent  for  its 
material  prosperity,  especially  technical  education  in  agricul- 
ture and  mining ;  (4)  that,  until  the  high  school  system  is  well 
established,  secondary  work  be  provided  for  in  the  state  insti- 
tutions with  especial  emphasis  upon  agricultural,  industrial, 
and  household  arts  courses  in  the  maintenance  of  which  the 
Federal  government  will  participate  under  the  terms  of  the 


54  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

Smith-Hughes  Act;  and  (5)  that  the  existing  higher  institutions 
be  united  preferably  in  one  strong  central  institution,  or  at 
most  in  three  state  colleges  under  a  unified  control. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

WILLIAM  C.  BAGLEY. 

New  York  City,  December  18, 1920. 


EDUCATONAL  INSTITUTIONS  55 

Stanford  University,  California, 
January  6,  1921. 

Mr.  H.  J.  Hagerman, 

Chairman  Special  Revenue  Commission, 
Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico. 

Dear  Sir : 

On  my  arrival  home  from  a  trip  into  Arizona  and  Southern 
California  I  find  the  report  prepared  by  Professor  Bagley,  for 
your  Commission,  awaiting  me.  I  have  read  it  through  care- 
fully three  time ;  first  hastily  to  .get  its  general  outlines ;  sec- 
ond as  a  careful  study,  with  such  data  as  I  could  collect  on 
your  institutions  in  our  library  here;  and  finally  again  as  a 
hasty  going  over  to  get  it  once  more  as  a  whole.  We  happen 
to  have  a  fairly  good  collection  of  catalogues  here,  and  I  have 
gone  over  these,  as  well  as  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education 
data.  I  have  spent  something  near  four  days  in  studying  the 
conditions,  as  well  as  one  could  at  a  distance,  and  in  trying  to 
estimate  the  value  of  the  various  recommendations  which  Pro- 
fessor Bagley  makes. 

Since  I  agree  with  him  in  almost  all  his  recommendations, 
I  take  it  that  you  do  not  want  a  detailed  statement  from  me, 
but  rather  a  brief  estimate  of  what  he  has  reported  to  you. 

I  thoroughly  agree  with  him  that  the  State  of  New  Mexico 
is  maintaining  far  too  many  state  institutions,  and  that  these 
should  be  combined  into  not  more  than  three.  The  Spanish- 
American  Normal  School  at  El  Rito,  I  should  recommend 
abandonment  of  entirely,  and  for  the  same  reasons  as  given  by 
Professor  Bagley.  The  Military  Institute  at  Roswell,  I  am  in- 
clined to  recommend  should  also  be  abandoned,  though,  from 
my  examination  of  its  catalogue,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
this  is  an  unusually  efficient  institution.  My  recommendation 
in  this  case  is  based,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Spanish-American 
Normal  School  at  El  Rito,  on  the  fundamental  proposition  that 
there  can  be  little  reason  in  the  future,  regardless  of  what  may 
have  been  the  motives  at  the  time  they  were  created,  for  the 
taxing  of  the  state  to  maintain  schools  of  secondary  grade.  The 
maintenance  of  such  should  be  a  local  matter,  and  as  a  part  of 
the  public  school  system,  the  state  confining  itself  to  higher 
education. 

The  School  of  Mines  at  Socorro  should  also  be  abandoned. 
I  can  see  little  justification  for  the  maintenance  of  a  separate 
institution  for  instruction  in  mining,  and  many  reasons  for  the 
combining  of  such  instruction  with  other  engineering  and 
scientific  work  at  the  University.  Stanford  University  has,  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  trained  mining  engineers  for  all  parts 


56  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

of  the  world,  and  we  have  no  mines  near  at  hand.  One  of  the 
most  successful  School  of  Mines  in  the  United  States  is  at  Co- 
lumbia University,  in  New  York  City.  Generally  speaking, 
over  the  United  States,  Schools  of  Mines  that  have  been  inde- 
pendent and  isolated  have  amounted  to  little,  while  the  suc- 
cessful institutions  have  been  a  part  of  a  large  university  in- 
stitution. For  educational  reasons,  as  well  as  for  motives  of 
economy,  I  would  recommend  the  abandonment  of  the  School 
of  Mines  at  Socorro  and  the  transfer  of  the  work  to  the  State 
University  at  Albuquerque. 

While  the  state's  greatest  professional  need  at  present, 
and  probably  for  a  long  time  to  come,  will  be  for  teachers,  I 
quite  agree  with  Professor  Bagley  that  the  Normal  School  at 
Silver  City  is  poorly  located,  and  ought  to  be  abandoned  as  a 
normal  school  and  the  work  transferred  and  combined  with  one 
or  more  of  the  other  existing  state  institutions. 

The  question  then  remains  of  three  institutions  or  one.  I 
tend  to  favor  the  three-institution  plan,  as  outlined  by  Pro- 
fessor Bagley  in  his  report  on  page  52.  The  three  institutions 
at  Las  Vegas,  Albuquerque  and  Las  Cruces  are  well  located  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  three  main  lines  of  travel  in  your  state, 
the  plants  represent  value  and  are  fairly  well  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  future,  the  agricultural  work  at  Las  Cruces  repre- 
sents a  type  of  farming  that  New  Mexico  needs  to  experiment 
with,  and  would  need  to  be  maintained  as  a  branch  institution 
under  any  plan,  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  three  institutions, 
located  in  the  three  main  sections  of  your  state  and  accessible 
through  the  three  main  lines  of  travel,  will  meet  the  needs 
of  a  larger  number  of  students  and  be  of  more  service  to  your 
state  than  will  one.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  almost  certain  that  if 
all  are  combined  in  one  now  it  will  only  be  a  matter  of  a  short 
time,  in  a  state  so  large  as  yours,  before  a  succeeding  legisla- 
ture will  recreate  some  one  or  more  of  the  abandoned  schools, 
and  the  economies  now  effected  will  be  lost  and  new  expenses 
involved  that  will  ultimately  cost  the  state  still  larger  sums. 

I  also  approve  heartily  the  division  of  work  between  the 
three  institutions,  and  the  plan  for  their  future  development, 
as  outlined  by  Professor  Bagley  on  page  62.  It  is  sensible,  and 
at  the  same  time  an  economical  program. 

New  Mexico  is  certain  to  increase  in  population  in  the  near 
future,  possibly  rather  rapidly,  but  even  though  no  increase  in 
population  should  occur  there  is  certain  to  be  a  marked  in- 
crease in  high  school  pupils  and  graduates  in  the  near  future. 
Teaching,  too,  with  better  salaries  for  the  work  and  a  slowing 
down  of  the  many  new  lines  of  employment  which  were  opened 
to  women  by  the  war,  is  almost  certain  to  come  back  as  an  at- 
tractive career  for  women  and  draw  many  into  it  who  now  go 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  57 

to  other  lines  of  service.  Looking  ahead  only  a  few  years,  it 
seems  to  me,  you  can  count  on  from  800  to  1000  new  students 
entering  the  three  state  institutions  each  year.  While  this 
number  could  of  course  be  accommodated  in  one  central  state 
university,  the  limits  of  practice  school  facilities  there,  the  de- 
mands of  your  agriculture,  and  the  need  for  looking  ahead 
and  anticipating  demands  in  the  future  for  the  creation  of  new 
state  institutions,  together  with  the  desirability  of  providing 
institutions  so  located  that  the  needs  of  your  state  may  be  best 
met,  all  incline  me  to  recommend  the  three-institution  plan  as 
outlined  by  Professor  Bagley  on  page  52. 

In  only  one  recommendation  do  I  strongly  disagree  with 
Professor  Bagley,  and  that  relates  to  the  creation  of  a  unifying 
state  board  to  control  the  three  slate  institutions,  should  your 
legislature  so  decide  the  problem.  He  favors  their  election  by 
the  people,  while  it  seems  to  me  that  the  evidence  from  prac- 
tice in  the  United  States  distinctly  favors  their  nomination  by 
the  governor.  Better  men  can  be  secured  for  the  work  of  man- 
agement, and  the  institutions  kept  freer  from  politics,  assum- 
ing that  governors  are  inclined  to  be  favorable  to  educational 
interests.  The  most  desirable  men  for  such  positions  seldom 
get  nominated  'under  the  popular  election  plan. 

In  closing  let  me  urge  that,  while  economy  in  operation  is 
desirable,  there  can  after  all  be  little  cutting  down  of  expenses 
for  so  important  and  so  rapidly  growing  an  undertaking  as  ed- 
ucation. The  demands  of  the  future  are  certain  to  be  larger 
and  more  costly,  and  a  constantly  larger  percentage  of  the 
state's  children  will  come  up  demanding  to  be  cared  for.  The 
problem  is  not  one  of  reducing  expenses,  but  rather  one  of 
spending  what  must  be  spent  in  a  better  way,  and  of  securing 
as  large  returns  as  possible  for  the  money  that  is  expended. 

Expressing  my  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  what 
you  have  undertaken,  and  wishing  you  success  in  effecting 
combinations,  I  am, 

Very  truly  yours, 

ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY, 
Dean  School  of  Education,  Stanford  University. 


58  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 

January  21,  1921. 

Mr.  H.  J.  Hagerman, 

Chairman,  Special  Revenue  Commission, 
Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Hagerman : 

I  have  read  carefully  Dr.  Bagley's  report  on  the  Higher 
Educational  Institutions  of  New  Mexico,  and  I  am  glad  to  re- 
port to  you  that  I  find  myself  in  agreement  with  his  major 
recommendations. 

Nothing  in  my  opinion  is  more  important  than  that  the 
qualifications  of  teachers  should  be  raised  during  the  period  of 
the  next  six  years  as  is  proposed  in  Dr.  Bagley's  report.  The 
standards  which  he  suggests  and  the  movement  from  the  pres- 
ent situation  to  the  higher  standards  seems  to  me  to  be  entirely 
feasible.  I  agree  with  Dr.  Bagley  as  to  the  necessity  of  revis- 
ing the  curricula  of  the  schools,  and  the  advisability  of  aban- 
doning the  school  at  El  Rito.  It  seems  to  me  most  unfortunate 
that  teachers  of  Spanish  speaking  children  should  be  educated 
separate  from  the  other  teachers  of  the  state.  I  should  hope 
that  the  state  should  soon  require  English  to  be  the  language 
of  instruction  in  all  schools,  and  that  all  teachers  be  well  quali- 
fied in  the  English  language.  If  the  Americanization  of  the 
Spanish  part  of  the  population  is  to  be  carried  forward,  I  know 
of  nothing  more  important  than  that  those  who  are  to  teach 
Spanish  speaking  children  be  themselves  taught  in  schools 
along  with  others  who  are  preparing  to  teach. 

I  am  persuaded  that  Dr.  Bagley  makes  a  clear  case  with 
respect  to  the  School  of  Mines.  The  benefit  derived  is  certain- 
ly very  small,  and  the  school  as  a  separate  institution  should 
certainly  be  abandoned. 

I  agree  as  well  with  his  recommendation  with  respect  to 
the  Military  Institute.  I  understand  that  a  special  land  grant 
together  with  the  fees  of  students  furnish  the  funds  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  institution.  I  assume,  therefore,  that  it  can 
be  continued  without  adding  in  any  considerable  degree  to  the 
tax  burden  of  the  state. 

Neither  the  El  Rito  Normal  School  nor  the  School  of 
Mines,  as  separate  institutions,  should  continue  to  be  a  burden 
upon  the  taxable  wealth  of  the  state.  Courses  offered  in  the 
School  of  Mines  could  very  well  be  taught  in  the  School  of  Ag- 
riculture, unless  it  is  decided  to  transfer  all  engineering 
courses  to  the  University  of  New  Mexico  from  the  Agricultural 
College. 

It  seems  to  me  very  clear  that  higher  education  should  be 
under  one  board.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  a  small  board 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  59 

elected  at  large  is  less  apt  to  play  politics,  or  to  be  affected  by 
unfortunate  political  influences  than  is  an  appointed  board. 

With  respect  to  the  possible  consolidation  of  institutions, 
I  think  the  ideal  situation  would  be  to  unite  all  of  them  into 
one  state  institution.  If  this  is  not  done,  the  one  most  desirable 
procedure  in  my  judgment  would  be  to  provide,  as  Prof.  Bag- 
ley  has  suggested,  a  northern  state  college  at  Las  Vegas,  a  cen- 
tral college  at  Albuquerque,  and  a  southern  at  Las  Cruces.  I 
agree  with  his  recommendations  with  respect  to  the  curricula 
to  be  offered  in  these  three  institutions. 

In  stating  my  agreement  with  Prof.  Bagley's  recommen- 
dations I  do  so  with  a  firm  conviction  that  he  has  a  sufficient 
basis  in  fact  and  in  first  hand  view  of  the  situation  to  have  jus- 
tified what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  very  sound  argument  back  of 
his  recommendations. 

Yours  sincerely, 

GEORGE  D.  STRAYER. 


60  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 


APPENDIX 
Data  Copied  From  "Who's  Who  in  America." 

BAGLEY,  WILLIAM  CHANDLER.— University  prof. ;  b. 
Detroit,  March  15,  1874;  s.  William  Chase  and  Ruth  (Walker) 
B. ;  B.S.,  Mich.  Agrl.  Coll.,  1895 ;  M.S.,  U.  of  Wis.,  1898 ;  Ph.D., 
Cornell  U.,  1900;  (Ed.D.,  R.  I.  State  Coll.,  1919) ;  m.  Florence 
MacLean  Winger,  of  Lincoln  Neb.,  Aug.  14,  1901.  Teacher 
pub.  schs.,  and  normal  schools,  1895-7,  1901-8 ;  prof,  edn.,  U.  of 
111.,  1908-17,  Teachers  Coll.  (Columbia  U.)  1917—.  During  the 
war  edited  Nat.  School  Service  (Com.  on  Pub.  Information). 
Trustee  Berea  Coll.,  Ky.  Fellow  A.A.A.S. ;  mem.  N.E.A.  (mem. 
emergency  Commn.,  1918 — ),  Nat.  Soc.  for  Study  of  Edn.  (pres., 
1911-12),  Soc.  Coll.  Teachers  of  Edn.  (pres.,  1918-19),  Sigma  XI, 
Kappa  Delta  Pi,  Phi  Delta  Kappa,  Phi  Delta  Theta.  Club: 
Authors.  Author:  The  Educative  Process,  1905;  Classroom 
Management,  1907 ;  Craftsmanship  in  Teaching,  1911 ;  Educa- 
tional Values,  1911;  Human  Behavior  (with  S.  S.  Colvin), 
1913 ;  School  Discipline,  1915 ;  History  of  the  American  People 
(with  C.  A.  Beard),  1918;  The  Preparation  of  Teachers  (with 
W.  S.  Learned),  1919.  Home:  Pleasantville,  N.  Y. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  61 


CUBBERLY,  Ellwcod  Patterson,  university  prof.;  b.  An- 
drews, Ind.,  June  6,  1868 ;  s.  Edwin  Blanchard  and  Kate  (Cor- 
yell)  C.;  A.  B.  Ind.  IL,  1891;  A.  M.,  Columbia,  1902,  Ph.  D., 
1905 ;  m.  Helen  Van  Uxem,  of  Richmond,  Ind.,  June  15,  1892. 
Prof,  and  pres.  Vincennes  U.,  1891-6 ;  city  supt.  schs.,  San  Diego, 
Cal.,  1896-8;  Asso.  prof,  edn.,  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  U.,  1898-06, 
prof.,  1906—.  Lecturer,  Columbia  U.,  1907,  14,  16,  Chicago  U., 
1910,  Harvard  U.,  1910-11.  Mem.  Baltimore  Bdnl.  Commn.,  1911, 
Butte  Sch.  Survey  Bd.,  1914;  dir.  Portland  (Ore.)  Sch.  Survey, 
1913,  Salt  Lake  City  School  Survey,  1915,  and  Oakland,  (Cal.) 
School  Survey,  1915.  Author :  Syllabus  of  Lectures  on  the  His- 
tor  yof  Education,  1902,  2d  edit.,  1904;  School  Funds  and  Their 
Apportionment,  1905 ;  Certification  of  Teachers,  1906 ;  Chang- 
ing Conceptions  of  Education,  1909 ;  The  Improvement  of  Rural 
Schools,  1911 ;  Rural  Life  and  Education,  1913  ;  State  and  Coun- 
ty Educational  Reorganization,  1914;  Public  School  Adminis- 
tration, 1915;  School  Organization  and  Administration,  1916; 
Public  Education  in  the  United  States,  1919 ;  and  (with  E.  C. 
Elliott)  State  and  County  School  Administration,  Vol.  II, 
Sources,  1915.  Editor  Riverside  Text  Books  in  Education 
series.  Address:  Stanford  University,  Cal. 


62  REPORT  ON  NEW  MEXICO 


STRAYER,  George  Drayton,  college  prof. ;  b.  Wayne,  Pa., 
Nov.  29,  1876 ;  s.  Daniel  Jacob  Reese  and  Mary  Anna  Walton 
(Ott)S.;  Bucknell  U.,1896-7;  A.B.,  Johns  Hopkins,1903;  grad. 
scholar,  1903-4,  fellow  in  edn.,  1904-5,  Ph.  D.,  1905,  Columbia ; 
m.  Cora  Bell,  of  Baltimore,  Sept.  17,  1903.  Teacher  and  prin.  of 
elementary  schs.,  1893-6,  secondary  schs.,  1898-1903;  instr.  ele- 
mentary edn.,  1905-7,  adj.  prof.,  1907-10,  prof,  of  edn.  adminis- 
tration, 1910—,  Teachers  Coll.  (Columbia  TL).  Mem.  N.E.A. 
(pres.  1918-19),  Nat.  Council  N.E.A.,  Nat.  Soc.  for  Study  of 
Edn.  (pres.  1918-19),  Assn.  Coll.  Teachers  of  Edn.,  Phi  Beta 
Kappa;  fellow  A.A.A.S.  Home  dir.  Y.M.C.A.  Overseas  Ednl. 
Commn.,  1918 ;  dir.  sch.  campaign  for  Nat.  War  Savings  Com., 
U.  S.  Treasury  Dept.,  1918,  chmn.  Commn.  on  Emergency  in 
End.,  N.E.A.,  1918 ;  chmn.  Advisory  Com.  on  Federal  Pub.  Schs., 
1918.  Presbyn.  Author :  City  School  Expenditures,  1905 ;  The 
Teaching  Process,  1911 ;  Retardation  and  Elimination  in  Schools 
and  Colleges,  1911;  Educational  Administration  (with  E.  L. 
Thorndike),  1913;  How  to  Teach  (with  Naomi  Norsworthy), 
1917;  The  Class  Room  Teacher  (with  N.  L.  Engelhardt),  1920. 
Editor  of  American  Educational  Series,  for  Am.  Book  Co. ; 
editor  Jour.  Ednl.  Research.  Member  bd.  editors  Educational 
Administration  and  Supervision.  Pub.  lecturer  and  contbr.  to 
ednl.  mags.  Address :  Teachers  College,  New  York,  N.  Y. 


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